23 October 2008 - Kariang Wedding

Karen (Kariang) Wedding

I have been very busy reviewing, editing, cataloguing and backing up my digital photos. I have finally finished with the photographs from Phuket 2008 Vegetarian Festival - 1,791 "keepers". There are now 14,779 digital photographs in my files.

Today it has been exactly two years since I made my first trip to Maehongson. I went there to see some of the hill tribe peoples. Maehongson is on the border with Burma (Myanmar). In the 1950's to the late 1970's Maehongson and its environs were deeply involved with the heroin trade. It was part of the "Golden Triangle Area" infamous for opium poppy cultivation, heroin production, smuggling, and Warlord's private armies to ensure security for the illicit trade.

Due to eradication programs conducted by the United States and Thailand the private armies are gone, poppy production is not obvious, heroin production no longer takes place and smuggling is reduced. The hill tribes whose culture and traditions centered around opium poppy production now through programs sponsored by the King of Thailand raise vegetables, flowers, and sell their unique textiles. Tourism to the area also helps the local economy.

The jumping off point for Maehongson is Chiang Mai. From Chiang Mai, you can drive to Maehongson - 280 km (174 miles) 7 hours and 1,864 curves in the road! You can also take a small plane (two propellers) 30 minutes from Chiang Mai over the mountains and into the Valley of the Three Mists. I took the flights from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Maehongson.

Once I arrived in Maehongson on Friday 20 October, I made arrangements for a guide, driver and car for the 5 days that I would be in Maehongson. My guide was headman of his Karen village and invited me to a wedding that would be conducted on Monday 23 October.

The Karen (Kariang) is the biggest group of hill tribe people in Thailand. There are about 350,000 Karens currently living in Thailand. They originally arrived in Thailand from the Karen state in Burma about 200 years ago. They are now Thai nationals unlike most of the other hill tribe groups. The other hill tribe groups are stateless people and do not have Thai passports or Thai rights.

I woke up at 5:15 AM to shower and prepare for our departure at 07:30. I was wearing the same clothes that I arrived wearing - my bag had gotten lost. Inauguration of the new Bangkok Airport the previous week had not gone smoothly.

We drove up to the village - a typical collection of huts raised on stilts. The sides of the huts are woven bamboo slats. The roofs are made of large dry leaves. Dogs and chickens were everywhere. There were also two cute little pigs that wandered around. The larger pigs were kept penned up next to the houses. The village has little outhouses but surprisingly - no odors.

All the villagers were very excited about the wedding. The people congregated in an open area between some of the huts. The area was a common cooking/food prep/dish washing area. Women were cooking in three large kettles over open wood fires.

One kettle had something that looked like gruel in it. It was white and thick - rather lumpy. The second kettle had green string beans. The third kettle had some greens in it. To the side there was a large tea kettle on the open coals of the fire. Off to the side a small child about 1-1/2 years old was sitting next to the fire with a large stick. At the end of the stick was a bug - a big mean looking bug. To me it appeared to be a Goliath or Hercules Beetle. I had been told that sometimes the Karen people will roast and eat these beetles as a snack. That morning I was fortunate no one decided to have a snack.

I was invited up into one of the huts. After removing my hiking boots, I ascended five wooden steps. At the top of the stairs, you could go either left or right. To the left was a big room - typical of hill tribe houses. The room is a combination kitchen and eating room. There were several men there eating. At one end of the room was a hearth with corn hanging over it to dry. On the hearth was a pot of something that was boiling.

I was welcomed into the room and upon sitting down on a woven straw mat, a packet of steamed rice wrapped up in a banana leaf with a bamboo string tying it all together was place in front of me. I was also given a Chinese metal soup spoon. I was going to be having wedding breakfast along with the others.

Large bowls of the white gruel, green stuff and green string beans were placed in the center of the circle formed by the men in the room. To eat, you place the white gruel on your rice along with some of the green stuff in your little personal bowl and eat it. It turned out that the gruel had garlic, chili, and pork in it. It took some getting used to but it was actually better tasting than it looked. The green beans were very tasty. We drank water with our meal - water from a community spigot from a small PVC pipe out of the ground. You are supposed to only drink bottled water in Thailand even in the big cities. I ended up drinking out of a spigot in a rural village on the side of a mountain without any problems. I guess that I was lucky.

The women stayed outside of the eating room and entered only to serve the food. After the men finished eating, a woman came in and placed more packets of rice on the floor. I found out that each family of the village helps with the wedding by contributing some boiled rice to feed the guests.

This house was the home of the bride's family. Her father was a handsome man and very friendly. It was obvious that he was a nice man.

In the other section of the house, off to the right, there was an alcove with 2 doors - one to the left and one to the right. The alcove area was where the wedding took place. There was a hand written banner on the wall. Beneath the banner there were some fancy brightly colored pillows on the floor. These are called axe pillows due to their shape and are common throughout Thailand. In front of the pillows was a bouquet of wild flowers. Along side of the flowers were a couple of silver colored offering bowls. These are thin metal pressed bowls that resemble small ornate Western silver punch bowls.

After eating breakfast, I lingered around the cooking area. All the women were thoroughly occupied preparing food, cooking food, serving food, and cleaning. The children were busy playing. The older children took care of the babies. It was obvious that the Karen love their children. After two years in Asia I now realize that why my and Duang's fascination with babies is so well received here. One of the tenets of Buddhism is a love for children - hey I can live with that!

While the women were cleaning the pots, the dogs, chickens and little pigs were eating the scraps that washed out of the pots.

After awhile, some firecrackers were set off. That was the sign to start the wedding ceremony. People climbed up to the alcove area.

Sitting under the banner, was the Best Man(?), Bride's Maid(?), Bride, Groom, and Bride's parents. The ceremony started with the Bride's mother saying some words and tying the hand of the Bride to the Groom's hand with some plain cotton string. The Bride's father then did the same thing. Guests then started kneeling and approaching the Bride and Groom.

Gifts in the form of money in envelopes were tied with the cotton string which is similar to butcher's string. The gift packet was then tied to the Groom's hand and Bride's hand.
The Groom wore a red hand woven tunic. The Bride, ever so demure, wore a simple dark tunic with woven design trim.

It was very simple and very sweet.

It was a true privilege and honor to witness as well as participate the wedding.