31 August 2008 - Prapheni Bun Bang Fai - Rocket Festival

Sunday, August 31, 2008
Prapheni Bun Bang Fai - Rocket Festival

Today as we had planned and discussed we went to Nongwha to take care of the laundry. It was a gorgeous morning - plenty of bright blue sky, a slight breeze, and reasonable temperature.

As I have explained in previous blogs, the trip out to Nongwha involves a combination of public transportation. Today on the songthaew from Udonthani to Kumphawapi we were with 21 other people, 3 chickens, a 50 kilogram sack of charcoal, and 2 10 kilogram sacks of peanuts. A songthaew is a medium sized pickup truck with two benches in the bed for passengers. A metal frame also allows passengers to hang on the back outside of the pickup bed. Travelling with the chickens was no big deal. They were inside each of their own personal carrier made out of cardboard boxes. The boxes were stored under the benches that we, the lucky passengers, were sitting on.

It was interesting to observe the dynamics of so many people in such a small vehicle. The young men without hesitation or prompting gave up their seat to females or elder men. If a young man was standing inside the pickup bed, he took a position outside of the enclosed area to hang off the back of the truck so that an older man could have a safer spot to ride. As people got on or off, the other passengers assisted them.

As I have started to do around here, I was carrying my camera gear in my backpack. I have discovered that there are so many opportunities to take interesting photographs here that I make the extra effort to lug the camera gear around.

On this trip to Nongwha, we were bringing some surprises with us. We had some prints made of the recent photographs that I had taken in Nongwha. These prints were to be given to the people who had so kindly allowed me to photograph them. The villagers do not have photographs of themselves or their children. Pictures are a luxury that is not within their grasp. Sharing prints is a nice way to thank them. I have also given prints to hill tribe people in Maehongson and it was a thrill just to watch their expressions when they were given their picture.

After distributing the prints, we spent time playing and photographing Kwan, Duang's cousin's 5 month old baby, as well as the other local children that hang around.

Just prior to lunch, Duang told me it was time to head to the water. One of the village women was headed off to go fishing. I needed no more encouragement and was off in a flash. I followed the woman through the village towards the water. The water cannot be called a river, lake, pond, swamp, or any other familiar term. The surrounding area is flat and the soil is a heavy clay which does not drain water very quickly or well. Since we are in the rainy season, there are heavy rains almost every day. The Mekong River has flooded in some areas. All the precipitation has created seasonal bodies of water everywhere.

The woman entered the water and started to fish. She used a large square dip net suspended from a long bamboo pole. She lowered the net into the water in front of her and would wait about two minutes before lifting the net assembly out of the water. Most of the attempts were fruitless. When she did catch some small fish in the net, she tilted the net towards herself, removed a conical net from atop her head, captured the fish in the conical net, put the fish in the square sack strapped over her shoulder, and returned the conical net to atop her head.

After taking about 150 pictures of the fishing woman, Duang informed me that it was time to go visit Buddha because her cousin was working there. I didn't completely understand the significance of it all but I have learned not to question her judgment in these types of matters.
The Wat was just a very short walk away. As we entered the compound, I understood why Duang wanted me to go there. The Monks and some young men were very busy building and preparing rockets.

Earlier in May, I had witnessed the building and firing of gunpowder rockets from this Wat.
Today was a special day. The rockets were not going to be fired from this Wat. Outside of Kumphawapi there was going to be a big festival were people from all over the area were going to be firing their rockets. There was to be a competition to determine who built the best rocket. The winning group would win 5,000 baht ($152 USD) with lesser prizes for runners up.

After photographing the Nongwha preparations we walked back to her mother's house to eat and wait two hours before going to the festival.

The firing of rockets, Prapheni Bun Bang Fai, into the air is a Laos and NE Thailand (Isaan) tradition. The origins of the practice are thought to be rooted in pre-Buddhist fertility rituals. Nowadays the practice is a traditional way of bring forth the rains need for cultivating rice.

There is an international renowned festival in Yasothon held during May.

I cannot explain why rockets were being fired at the end of August other than I have observed that it is fun, Thais like to have fun, and it is an opportunity to gain some prestige and extra money. Besides the prizes that can be earned, there is a great deal of "side action" amongst the spectators.

The rockets are all handmade. They are PVC covered bamboo cylinder lashed to a long piece of bamboo. Monks are heavily involved in the construction of the rockets. Some Monks perform the work and other Monks supervise and no doubt provide spiritual guidance to the endeavor.
We drove about 35 minutes through the countryside NE of Kumphawapi. The festival site was filled with pickup trucks, booths selling food as well as drinks, and people having picnics. The focal point of the festival site was the "launch pad". In Nongwha, when the rockets were launched, the launch pad could accommodate three rockets. This launch pad could handle 10 rockets. What was most disconcerting was that rockets were being launched from the bamboo structure while people were mounting other rockets on the same structure!! I understand that at a previous festival somewhere in Thailand, three people were killed and 11 injured in a launch accident.

This festival did not have any ambulances or fire trucks in attendance. It was just a bunch of people getting together to launch rockets into the sky. There was a PA system that announced the name of the Wat that was launching the next rocket, the results of the previous launch. and somewhat of an indication when the rocket was going to be launched. There were no formal countdowns prior to firing the rockets!

There were three men lying back in chairs with binoculars who were monitoring the rockets, other men had stop watches to document the results. Rockets took about 280 seconds to reach their peak and return to earth - the longer the better.

As I was walking around the site to get a better angle to shoot photographs, the people around me became very animated and excited. They started pointing up in the sky - basically directly overhead. It turned out that a previous rocket was returning to earth right above us. The spent rocket landed about 50 feet away.

Everyone was in a great mood - the excitement of the launches, the food, the camaraderie, the beer, and the Lao Kao (whiskey).

There were even a couple of twin launches.

After about two hours it was time to leave. Interestingly the beautiful day had turned threatening. As we drove out of the site, it appeared that rain was imminent. When we were 5 minutes from the site, we got hit with torrential rain - so bad that we saw a new truck that had run off the road into a rice paddy. The rain lasted for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes we were in areas that did not show evidence of a drop of rain.

Was it the rockets? I don't know. There are many things here in Thailand that I can not explain. I can only report what I see and experience.