Korb Siarn Khru 2016

Por Gae Ta Fai

Duang and I drove out to her home village on May 1st to witness another Korb Siarn Khru ritual being performed at the Wat located just outside the village amongst the sugar cane fields.  This was the third ritual that we have observed during the past three years.

 The Korb Siarn Khru ritual is a variant of the  Wai Khru ritual.

In a Wai Khru ceremony, devotees pay homage and demonstrate their respect for their teachers and the deities associated with their art or practice.  The term, "teachers", is not restricted to the people who are employed to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Teachers in this sense of the word includes all those that have instructed, inspired, and trained others in a wide variety of matters.

Buddha is considered to be the greatest of teachers.  There are teachers of many things such as music, dance, martial arts, astrology, traditional healing, and magic.

The Wai Khru ceremony is not a Buddhist ceremony although Buddhism is often involved in the ritual.  The origins of the Wai Khru ceremony are in the Animist and subsequent influence of Brahmanism.  Animism was the original religious belief system of the native peoples of Thailand and in particular the inhabitants of the region referred to as Isaan (Northeast).  The history of Southeast Asia is fraught with migrations, wars, invasion, and subjugation. One of the consequences of the turbulent past was the spread of different religions and philosophies.  One of the religions that spread to Thailand was Brahmanism, the precursor of Hinduism, originating in Northern India but most likely spread in Thailand from Cambodia as part of the Khmer Empire.

Rather than eliminating the former Animist practices, beliefs and rituals with the arrival of Brahmanism, the old traditions were assimilated into the new system.  The same thing occurred later when Buddhism arrived from Ceylon.

This all makes for a very interesting and quite often confusing religious system which is practiced here in Isaan today.  Today, 95% of the Thai people are Theravada Buddhists but a vast majority of the Thai people's religious beliefs, practices, as well as rituals are vestiges or heavily influenced by Animism and Brahmanism.  The Wai Khru Ceremony is one example.

The Korb Siarn Khru ritual involves paying respects to teachers known as "Ruesi", sages and seers, who are masters of the occult (outside of ordinary knowledge).  In a twist on the Wai Khru ritual, the devotees have a mask placed upon their head to transfer blessings and to link them to the lineage of the masters and deities.

The Korb Siarn Khru ceremony removes black magic spells and provides protection to the devotee.

Attending large and well known events such as the Wai Khru Ceremonies and Korb Siarn Khru Ceremonies provide opportunities for me to meet my ambition and achieve my goals in regards to photography.

I prefer the smaller, more intimate venues where there are not television cameras, reporters, or thousands or even hundreds of tourists.  These events and venues, where the people are conducting rituals for their own benefit offer much better opportunities to experience and better understand the event and its impact on the local people.

Living in Thailand and being married to an ethnic Lao, gives me many opportunities to experience and photograph "extraordinary people doing ordinary things."  Often I have opportunities to experience and photograph "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" 

Often my wife, Duang, will get a phone call from someone in the extended family notifying her of some ritual, event, or thing that they believe that I would like to photograph.  Just as new religious systems have been assimilated, I have been assimilated into Duang's extended family.

The young Monk of the Wat performed a typical offering ritual outside of the shrine at the white covered table while devotees sat in chairs underneath the pavilions.  After completing this part of the ritual, he went inside of the shrine for the remainder of ceremony - the Korb Siarn Khru Ceremony.

The Ruesi shrine has changed over the past year.  The open sides have now been enclosed and there are two additional shrines inside of the enclosed space.

Ruesi were and are hermit sages who spend their time meditating and developing their psychic powers - sort of like wizards.  They collect magical herbs, and minerals.  Using magical ingredients they produce love charms, spells and powerful amulets. The goal of the Ruesi is to help others have a happier life by telling their fortunes, conducting rituals and making spells to reduce the effects of bad karma.  Ruesi also are able to ward off evil spirits.  They also help people by protecting them from enemies.  Certain rituals performed by Ruesi can bring good luck and fortune to their devotees. Some of the Ruesi make Sak Yants, the magical and powerful tattoos known throughout this world.

One of the most important Ruesi rituals is performed once a year is the Korb Siarn Khru - laying the Ruesi mask of the master teacher, Ruesi Por Gae, on the devotee  The Korb Siarn Khru is performed during the Wai Khru Ceremony.  The Siarn Ruesi mask is a full sized mask with head dress with an open mouth, three eyes, two teeth sticking out of the mouth, a moustache, and a beard.  There are also masks of other deities within the Ruesi pantheon - some of them being tigers, elephants, yaks (giants) and other creatures.

Inside of the shrine there was an overhead matrix  formed by stringing sai sin  across the room in a checkerboard pattern.  Where the sai sin intersected, separate lengths of sai sin were coiled up.  As the devotees entered the shrine they uncoiled the sai sin and wrapped the free length around their head connecting them physically and spiritually to the Buddha image in the corner of the room, the Ruesi image and the items used by the Monk in the ritual.  A thick sai sin dropped down from the overhead grid just to the right of the Monk conducting the ritual.  He held the thick cord in his hand and several times during his incantations would violently pull on the heavy cord causing the entire grid to pulsate up and down in rhythm to his chanting.  It was at this time that things started getting intense and for many people - very intense.

As part of this initial ritual which involved all the devotees as a group of roughly 20 people, the Monk would sprinkle the crowd with sacred water that had been produced during his chanting by wax dropping from two lit horizontal white candles suspended over a metal bowl of water.

In Thailand there is an often used expression of "Same, same but different"  At first it is easy to snicker and dismiss such an expression.  However, after living here for a while, I have developed an appreciation for the phrase.  It captures some of the essence of being Thai and conveys the notion of being connected to something in a changing world.  For Buddhist life is change. Nothing remains the same  ... unchanged.

This Korb Siarn Khru ritual was the third that we attended and it was "Same, same but different"

The biggest difference in the ritual was the part of preparing the sacred water that is sprinkled on the devotees and attendees of the ceremony.

The water is produced pretty much in the same manner that Monks use in many of their merit making rituals.

The young Monk allowed the drippings from two white candles to fall into a converted Monk's bowl as he recited katas.

This year however was different, at the conclusion of the preparation of the sacred water, the Monk ate the fire from the candles.

The "eating of the fire" was not a carnival or street-performer feat.  The Monk,  a devotee and disciple of Por Gae Luesi Ta Fai was demonstrating his expertise of "Kasin Fai" - Fire Elemental Control.

Por Gae Lusi Ta Fai is a hermit wizard with a third eye.  He can stare at anything and make it burst into flames.

As the ritual continued a sort of mass hysteria developed in the devotees as the volume, intensity, and rhythm of the Monk's chanting increased.  Some of the devotees would have their bodies stiffen and go into spasms.  They would begin to hyperventilate followed by roars, squeals, and animal sounds. Their limbs would start to flail about followed by the entire body going into convulsive spasms.  The devotees who have Sak Yant tattoos adorning their body, are now in the possession of their internal animal spirits - animal spirits associated with their Sak Yant tattoos.
To be honest, there were moments when I felt very uncomfortable with all the screaming, growling, screeching, and  growling along with the highly unusual movements of the possessed people about me. Once or twice I thought about bolting out of the shrine - but it was just too interesting to leave.

The intensity quickly diminished once the young Monk sprinkled the devotees with the sacred water.

The devotees then scrunched forward to the Monk with their pre-prepared offering plates (candles, joss sticks, flower buds, three cigarettes and sprigs of leaves) along with their money offering.  The individual plates were gathered and placed first on a gold colored pressed metal tray and then transferred to the raised platform where the Monks were seated.

As their turn arrived the devotees, who had not made their offerings previously, would place themselves in front of the Monk involved in the ritual.  Once in place they would make an offering and give it to the Monk.

After accepting the offering and placing them on the raised  area off to the left from where he was seated, the Monk would start chanting.  It was a special chant called a "Kata".  Chanting a Kata is necessary to cast a spell.  As the Monk was chanting, he selected a Ruesi mask and placed it over the face and head of the devotee.  As the Monk's chanting became louder and more animated, the devotee tensed up with his arms and hands becoming rigid as if going into a catatonic state or becoming possessed - for some ; once again.

The devotees would grunt, howl, and screech the sounds of the animal or deity that was possessing them - their spirit.  The devotees would then start to writhe, crawl, jump, and hop as the spirit took control of their body.  To prevent damage to the devotee, Monk, observers and the shrine, layperson assistants flanking the devotee, would restrain the devotee as the possession reached its apogee.  The Monk would then blow upon the devotee to energize the Sak Yant tattoos and to complete the transference of the spell.  The Monk would then remove the mask.  The devotee, physically and emotionally spent, would then perform a wai (bowed, raised hands clasped in prayer position - the Thai demonstration of respect and gratitude) before leaving the shrine.

This was just a glimpse into the realm of the occult here in Isaan.  Interestingly the occult here is related to doing good and benefiting people whereas my previous view of the occult in the West was that it was related to doing evil.

There is always something to learn and experience no matter where you are or how old you are if you are only willing to get off the beaten track and interact with the ordinary people.

If you have seen it before, there is always the opportunity to better understand and gain greater knowledge.  As often is the case, there will be more than sufficient "Same. same but different" to also keep it interesting.

The Golden Hour

The Golden Hour In Galilee (Rhode Island)

Duang and I have been in the USA for seven months now.  Caring for my parents takes up most of our time but on occasions we do get out for a few hours.  I am not able to take as many or the types of photographs that I prefer back in Southeast Asia.  Here in the USA people are more sensitive and suspicious of having their photograph taken; and even more so of photographs of their children!  Back in Thailand and Laos, people are honored to have you take their photograph and even more so photographs of their children.   Up until around 1999, the vast majority of my photographs were of landscapes and animals with perhaps as little as 5% being of people.  Now, outside of the USA, 90% of my photos are of people.

Saturday, Duang and I drove over to the Washington County Fair in nearby Rhode Island.  I wanted Duang to experience a quasi-rural county fair.  I brought along my camera gear in anticipation and hopes of getting some photographs.  The Fair was nice but after about two hours, Duang was a little intimidated by the amount of people and was tired.  I had taken only 6 pictures and was quite conscious that the few people that I would consider photographing were not all that willing to be subjects.  Undeterred we moved on to Plan "B".

On previous trips to the area, we had toured some of the areas that I had frequented during my years at the University of Rhode Island but we had yet to spend any time at the local fishing villages.  Plan "B" was to drive down to Galilee, have some dinner, and take some photographs during the "Golden Hour" which is sometimes referred to as the "Magic Hour"  If I could not take photographs of interesting people, I would fall back on to what I used to shoot ... landscapes and work on some portraits of my willing model Duang.

The "Golden Hour" is roughly the time just after the sun rises in the morning or the time just before the sun sets in the evening.  It is at this time that the sun is low on the horizon which produces a much softer and more diffuse light than the midday sun.  During the "Golden Hour", shadows are not as dark or as sharp as during the other times of the day.  The light is also warmer with more of a reddish hue.  This time is also a time when magic can occur.





Nossa Senhora do Carmo By Day, Ouro Preto, Brasil

The strongest example of the magic that I have experienced occurred in Ouro Preto (Black Gold), Brasil in November 2000.  Ouro Preto is a colonial mining town located in the state of Minas Gerais.  It is the location where gold was first discovered in Brasil. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Center.  It is a beautiful and fascinating place to visit and even more so; to photograph.
The center of town is dominated by many large colonial structures one of them being the church, Igreja Nossa Senhora do Carmo.  The church is covered in stucco which like the concrete structures of Asia develops an unattractive "patina" of soot, smoke, mold and mildew making the buildings a dull light grey with streaks of black if they have not been recently power washed.  It is what it is.  However it can be at times marvelous especially during the "Golden Hour" when everything is magically transformed.




Igreja Senhora do Carmo During the "Golden Hour"


I had been walking about the city all afternoon long with my wife when we were headed into the center of town to have dinner before grabbing a taxi to our possada on the outskirts of town.  Walking the streets of Ouro Preto can be a challenge.  The town is very hilly, some of the streets are quite steep, and many of the streets are cobble stoned.  Along with the elevation of 1,100 meters (3,400 ft) and heat, these factors all contribute to tiring you out.  As we were crossing over a small stone bridge during the "Golden Hour" just prior to making our way up to the city center, I saw Nossa Senhora do Carmo unlike anytime before during our stay.  It was completely bathed in gold - golden light.  It was awesome.  Since my wife was tired I had her sit on a bench placed on the bridge, while I hustled up the steep street to get a better perspective for photographing the sight.  I ended up taking 7 pictures.  Seven pictures?  At the time I was shooting film so I was much more prudent in the number of photos that I took than today with my digital cameras.  After taking the seven shots, I excitedly returned to where my wife was waiting.  I described how beautiful the scene was and when I turned around to point out the golden scene, the light was already gone.  My "Igreja D'Ouro" (Church of Gold) had transformed with the dying of the light into a cold drab bluish grey building.  The entire metamorphosis from a light grey black streaked building to a golden shrine and then to a cold drab bluish grey structure had taken about 15 minutes.  Although the magical time is referred to as the "Golden Hour" it is not exactly an hour because of location and locale.  Because Ouro Preto is closer to the equator and because it is so hilly, the magic lasts much less than an hour.

"Igreja d'Ouro"

Eleven years later back in the USA, I had no expectations of capturing the magic of Ouro Preto but I was looking forward to seeing what could be made from the "Golden Hour" in Galilee, Rhode Island.  Like most places and all people, a great deal has changed in the 40 years since I left the area.

Where fishing boats used to command center stage in the center of the port, the two Block Island ferries, one traditional and the other high speed, dominate the port as well as surrounding land.  George's Restaurant is still at the mouth of the port serving up their famous chowder and fritters along with other seafood fare.  The restaurant is much larger than I remember and I am certain that wait staff are children and grandchildren of the staff that I was familiar with.  A great surprise was despite the cost increases, the food was better than I remembered and the best clam fritters that we have had since we arrived in America.

After our dinner we drove down to the edge of town where the fishing boats now are docked.  It was around 6:50 PM and it was a perfect time.  Other than a few people boarding charter vessels for night fishing excursions, we had the docks to ourselves and the sea gulls.  There was no one around to tell us what we could not do.  There was no one around to look out for us and to question our intentions or motives.

Duang and I walked along the various docks enjoying the sights and smells of a working fish dock.  I took some photos of moored boats and other things.  As in Brasil the "Golden Hour" was also a "Magic Hour".  The low sun was transforming ordinary things into extraordinary sights.  The diffuse warm light enhances the colors and textures.  I took some photographs of  a pile of fishing gear on the dock - a mundane subject if under the harsh light of the afternoon sun but very interesting under the soft light.

Duang was enjoying the moment by taking her own photographs with her camera.  We were on the dock that service boats with ice when I got the idea to take some portraits of Duang, my always willing model.  With the limited opportunities to take my documentary style photographs of people, I have been looking into learning more about studio lighting for portraits.  I have researched renting a studio and studio lighting as well as attending a class related to studio lighting hopefully in the near future.

In some aspects the available light on the dock in Galilee was the type of light photographers work to create in the studio artificially.  I decided to try some techniques out, after all it was free and I enjoy photographing Duang.

Duang In Galilee ... Galilee, Rhode Island

Duang On The Dock Of the Bay, Galilee

Duang Enjoying the "Golden Hour"

We spent 25 minutes photographing and enjoying the summer evening.  Around 7:15 PM the light quality was diminishing rapidly.  It was time to head on home.

It Is All About the Light

Our afternoon out had worked out very well.  Just as often the case is in life, things did not go as we had hoped or expected.  Just as in life we adapted and made the most of the opportunities that did present themselves.

In photography, we are all presented with the opportunities and magic of the "Golden Hour".  If you can get outside, it is there for you everyday and for free.  You may not be able to take the exact photographs that you typically do, but you can learn to broaden your perspectives and enlarge your focus - a worthwhile endeavor and pleasant way to spend any evening.