Casting the Wat's New Buddha Statue - Day #2

Workmen Pour Molten Bronze Into Mold for Buddha Statue

Sunday, 1 February, was the big day for casting the Buddha statue for Wat Ban Maet.

Our day at the Wat started at 9:15 A.M. - our timing was to coincide with the start of the daily Ta Bart ritual.  There was a very large crowd at the Wat.  The new sala was filled with chi pohm, the women who were participating in the two night religious retreat, and laypeople - many of them children.  Children receive religious training and instruction at a very early age.  With lighting candles and burning incense being central to worship ritual, most children are very willing students.

Worshipping with Yai (Grandmother) and Teddy

Outside of the new sala and the old sala, many people were occupied setting up food and beverages on bamboo tables.  The food and beverages on the tables were not intended for the Monks.  The food was for the people who had arrived to witness the casting of the statue of Buddha.

Everyday people bring food to offer to the Monks.  The Monks take a little bit from the various platters, plates, and bowls - placing their selections inside of their Monk's bowl.  The food that they have selected must be totally consumed during their one meal of the day.  Their meal must also be consumed by 12:00 Noon.  Food that has not been selected by the Monks, is placed on the woven reed mats, sahts, that had been placed on the floor of the sala.  The laypeople then have a community meal.  This is the way it is all across Thailand - anyone and everyone is invited as well as welcomed to eat the food that the Monks do not accept.  Years ago, Duang and her children survived by eating this way.

On special celebrations, the casting of a statue being one, there is another tradition involving food and drinks.  Since the special celebrations last longer than the typical two hour daily Tak Bart ritual, people donate food and drinks for the people.

Some people, often families, donate 1.5 liter bottles of soft drinks - colas, Fanta Strawberry, Fanta Orange, Fanta "Amoung" (a banana, pineapple, coconut, orange concoction). The soda is then distributed to everyone in small plastic cups filled with either crushed ice or ice cubes from large plastic coolers placed on the ground.

Young Girl Enjoying Her Soft Drink

Other people supply small prepackaged drinking water or prepackaged soft drinks (fruit juices and kool aid)  The various booths and stalls are manned by family members of all ages.  Children at an early age learn to help and participate in good works.

Other stalls offer curries, noodle dishes, rice dishes, ice-cream, and donuts.

The ice cream booth was quite interesting - as always.  You have three choices for your ice cream - a cone, a bowl, or ... small hot dog bun.  Hot dog bun?  Yup - here in Isaan you can get three small scoops of ice cream served open faced on bread.

The ice cream arrives in large, heavily insulated metal cylinders.  Flavors are typically coconut, strawberry, jackfruit, and corn. Corn?  Here in Thailand corn is used just as much for a dessert as for a vegetable entre.   Other popular flavors are mango, pineapple and taro. I opted for a single scoop cone of Jackfruit ... twice!

People earn merit by offering free food and drinks to the people at these events.  However there is a hierarchical order in earning merit.  You earn merit for offering food to people at Wats but not as much as offering food to the Monks during Tak Bart - either at a Wat or alongside the road as the Monks walk by.

The previous day, before we left for the day. we confirmed that the statue would be poured at 1:00 P.M.  Our plan was to arrive at the Wat for Tak Bart, stay for the casting of the statue , and return home around 2:30 P.M.

Casting Crew Accommodations

The casting of the Buddha statue was performed by a company from Chonburi - roughly 8 hours from Udonthani.  The ten person crew, 9 men and 1 woman, arrived at Wat Ban Maet with the mold to be cast as well as a much larger mold for another statue to be cast in Loei - 4 hours west of Udonthani.

The crew arrives at a location three days before the scheduled casting day.  The first day is spent offloading the firewood to fuel the temporary furnaces required for the casting operation.  Besides the firewood, there are also many bags of charcoal to fuel the furnaces.  The firewood is burned in a large furnace that surrounds the statue mold.  Charcoal is burned to create the much higher temperature necessary to melt the bronze ingots for the casting.

The crew also offloads their bags of refractory cement, metal stands, piping to be used as furnace and mold supports, as well as their crucibles and pouring tools.

While part of the crew works at offloading the statue mold, setting it upside down and constructing the natural draft furnace around it, other members of the crew construct the bamboo/macramé panels that form the ritual area for the casting process.

Natural Draft Wood Fired Furnace Drying Out Statue Mold

The mold for the statue was fabricated at the company's facility in Chonburi.  The mold is associated with the lost wax, also referred to as the investment, cast process.  I wrote about the process on a much small scale regarding a visit to a Wat near Khon Kaen,

http://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2014/10/forest-foundry-not-to-be-confused-with.html

Since the statue to be cast is much larger and will contain 500 KG (1,100 pounds) of molten bronze, the mold is much more substantial than the molds used in Khon Kaen.  A great deal of reinforcement steel, chicken wire, was incorporated into the Wat Ban Maet to handle hoop stresses and evenly distribute heat throughout the plaster mold.

The mold arrived at the Wat as a three layer sandwich - a wax/clay core with a thick plaster coating on each side.  The wax/clay core melts out of the mold creating a void into which the molten bronze will flow and fill.

After setting the mold and building a furnace around it, the workers heated the mold for 2 days.  Heating the mold serves several purposes - it hardens as well as cures the plaster, it removes any moisture from the mold (water and molten metal is an explosive combination due to rapid creation of steam), it removes the internal wax/clay core, and heats the mold to ensure that the molten metal does not "freeze" when poured into the mold during the pouring process.

As is typical for traveling workers in Southeast Asia, the casting crew did not stay in hotels or guest houses.  They stayed in small tents and under an awning that they had brought with them - camping out on location of their work.

Duang and I, on Sunday, stayed at the Wat until roughly 10:30 A.M. when it became obvious that the casting would not happen at 1:00 P.M.  We asked around and verified with the casting crew supervisor that the casting would actually be at 5:00 P.M.  We returned home to relax and take advantage of the more convenient restroom facilities of our home.  I spent a couple hours working on photos when an inner voice, perhaps a spirit, told me that we should return to the Wat immediately.  I told my wife to get ready.  She reminded me that it was too early for the casting at 5:00 P.M. I told her about my premonition and attributed it to Buddha - end of any further discussion from her!

We arrived back at the Wat at 3:45 P.M. to find the place a beehive of activity.  Dignitaries had arrived and were seated in their places of honor in front of the new sala.

Luang Por Pohm Likit and Dignitaries In Front of New Sala

The two forced draft charcoal fuelled furnaces for melting the bronze ingots were blazing away sending thick clouds of smoke into the late afternoon sky.  The oxygen required to raise the charcoal fire to the necessary temperature to melt the bronze was supplied by forcing air into the bottom of the fire by electrical blowers located at the side of each furnace.

Forced Draft Furnaces Ablaze - Melting Bronze Ingots

Tending to the Bronze Furnace

Small Molds for Statue Parts

The large temporary furnace around the statue mold had been dismantled  and replaced by metal pedestals at four corners to the mold.  Although the furnace was gone the remaining coals on the ground surrounding the mold were still giving off quite a bit of heat.

Heating Up the Tools for Casting Bronze

Many spectators were situated just inside the casting area along the east side.

Witnesses to a Casting

This was another family affair with the audience being people of all ages, in some cases four generations of a family.  Just before the actual start of the casting process, a sai sin, white cotton string, was unrolled and held by each of the witnesses.  The sai sin connects people, alive and dead, with the Monks and statues during many rituals of Theravada Buddhism.  The string, a sacred thread, brings good luck and good fortune to people while connecting the people to the spirit world.  On Sunday, the sai sin connected all the people - the lay people, the young, the old, the Monks, the dignitaries with the mold for the statue.

The casting process began with four Monks ascending and sitting in the lotus position on the large elevated rattan thrones laced in each corner of the casting area.  A small portion of the statue - the flame usnisa which is placed on top of the statue's head  to signify Buddha's enlightenment was cast with the assistance of the ranking dignitaries.  I assume that the small casting was the flame usnisa based upon the shape of the mold.  Of course my analysis is presupposed upon the notion that you can judge or at least determine a casting by its mold unlike not judging a book by its cover. The casting proceeded with the rhythmic and somewhat hypnotic chanting of the Monks filling the air.  Their voices disappearing into the late afternoon sky along with the disappearing pillars of grey and white smoke plumes of the casting process.

Casting the Flame Usnisa

The casting of the main part of the statue proceed rapidly and continuously after the formalities of the flame usnisa.  Time and the cooling effects of open air are the enemies of making high quality castings.  Bronze melts at 1,700F and is poured into the hot mold to ensure that it remains free flowing throughout the mold and to prevent is from freezing.

Awaiting the Word to Commence Pouring the Statue

The casting crew manned their work stations - four men at the top pouring platform level, four at the intermediate level, and two people to carry the crucibles from the furnaces to the staging area and from the staging area to the intermediate level.

Under the Thai Buddhist Flag (Dhamakra Flag) and Sai Sins, Workers Top Off the Bronze Pour

After the main pour had been topped off, the dignitaries walked clockwise around the mold tossing offerings of flower petals on the mold.  After the dignitaries had completed their circumambulation, Luang Por Pohm Likit with the assistance from one of the casting crew sprinkled the mold with water  - akin to blessing the mold with holy water but more like transferring the merit of the proceeding ritual with the statue.

After completing the blessing of the cast statue, Luang Por Pohm Likit blessed (transferred merit) the crowd by sprinkling water upon them with a reed brush made specifically for that purpose.  As typically happens, I got a heavy dose of water and three taps to the head - much to the delight of the crowd.  I suspect that this is a sort of Buddhist evangelizing or proselytizing ... they do not try to persuade people to become Buddhists leaving it to individual choice - "up to you" but I suspect a little extra water and three taps (the Buddhist three gems - Buddha, the teaching of Buddha, and the Sanga (Buddhist religious community) are offered as encouragement.

Blessing the Crowd

The ritual was now completed.  I looked at my watch and noted that it was 5:02 P.M.!  It was very fortunately that I had listened to my or whosever voice that I was hearing back at our home.  Well as Duang reminds me "Thailand not same, Amireeka"

As we left the Wat, I stopped by the worker's accommodation and had some fun with the supervisor who I had gotten to know.  I looked at him and pointed at my watch and then at the completed cast statue.  I told him in Thai that I did not understand.  I told him it was 100% at 5:00 P.M. not 0% like he told me.  He instantly knew that I was joking with him.  I told him that I was happy that Buddha told me to go to the Wat at 3:45 P.M. not 5:00 P.M.!

I then had Duang ask him when the plaster mold would be removed from the casting and the statue placed in the sala.  He told us it would be 8:00 A. M. the next morning.  I asked twice to confirm that it was 8:00 A.M. the next morning and not 8:00 P.M. that night or the next night.  I reminded him about his telling me 5:00 P.M. for today's casting when it actually ended up being 4:00 P.M. - "Thailand not same Amireeka".  We all enjoyed a good laugh, said goodbye , and promised to return the next day at 8:00 A.M.

Casting the Wat's New Buddha Statue - Day #1



One of the many signs directing visitors to Wat Ban Maet

The casting of the Buddha statue for the new sala at Wat Ban Maet was a two day event, Saturday 31 January and Sunday 1 February.

We arrived at the Wat around 9:30 A.M., our typical time for the daily merit making ritual of offering food to Luang Por Pohm Likit and the samanen who also stays at the Wat.

I had not been out to the Wat for about three weeks and was surprised at all the work that had been accomplished during that time.  Two large plots of land off to the side of the new sala had been cleared and leveled for use as parking lots.  Even at the relatively early hour of 9:30 A.M., the lots were fairly well filled with vehicles.

In front of the sala, there was a large area cordoned off with panels constructed from freshly cut bamboo, strings, and pakamas.  Archways that provided access to this impound area were located on the narrow dirt road that runs past the Wat and another archway was opposite the first leading directly to the sala.  The archways were created from tall bamboo poles and very intricate weaving of colored string to create three dimensional shapes.  Offerings of banana stalks, coconuts, turban squashes were placed on the sides of the arches.  Thai flags and the Dharmakra flag (the Thai Buddhist flag) flew from the vertical supports of each panel.  Scallop shell wind chimes were attached to the corner supports.  I am certain that these items were related to ancient Animist beliefs as well as rituals.

I was intrigued by the handcrafted panels that surrounded the casting area.  They reminded me of a combination of large scale macramé and large scale "dream catchers" favored by hippies and new age people back in the USA.  I asked Duang about them.  She said that the crew who were going to cast the Buddha statue had made them and set them up.  She added that some of the people at the Wat had helped to make them.

Security Fence?

Panel with an Origami rosette made from a Pakama

A Design Utilizing Different Diameter Yarns

Tonight, in preparing to write this blog entry, I asked Duang for more detail about these fabric sculptures, dream catchers, macramé or whatever they are.  Duang told me that they were "Sirimohnkhun". 

Many times there are issues in learning and understanding some of the things that I observe here.  The first issue is Thai as well as Lao our tonal languages - for many words there are five different ways to say them and hear them. Each of the five ways of saying the word has completely different and highly unrelated meanings.  For 65 years my world has been basically a monotonic world with only an inflection at the end of a sentence if asking a question. On a good day, a VERY GOOD day I may be able to hear three of the five ways to say a Thai word.

There are often more than one way to spell Thai words, even if you correctly hear them first.  Many tourists as well as resident expats have been confused reading road maps and street signs in Thailand due to different or unique English  translations.

Another issue is Duang not being a native English speaker and she is not able to write English just as can not read or write Thai.  This does not present any major difficulties in our daily life but is an issue when trying to learn and understand cultural differences.

I tried through Google to learn more about "Sirimohnkhun", "Sirimonkun", "Silimongkhun" or was it "Silimonkun"? to no avail.

According to Duang "Sirimohnkhun" are good for lor paht - same same lor paht, lor paht #1 Buddha in Thailand, good luck for people, good for everything"  Now you know as much as I do.

There were many women at the Wat on Saturday.  They were participating in a two night religious retreat.  Duang participated in three of them during the past Vassa, Buddhist Rain Retreat.  During the religious retreat the women listen to religious sermons and readings by the Monks.  The women also do a great deal of chanting day and night.  The woman are supposed to stay awake the entire period but many end up falling asleep in their little tents that are meant for resting and meditating.

The women, known as "chi pohm" during the retreat, followed the Monks for the Tak Bart ritual.  Lay people, family and friends offered them food for their one meal of the day.

A Chi Pohm Accepts A Food Offering

After eating their meal, the chi pohm returned to the old sala to chant and participate in rituals lead by the Monks.  Other women, dressed in white for the serious nature of the day, busied themselves preparing for the next day's activities.

Women Making Centerpieces for the Next Day's Rituals

Hand Made Baii Sii Kuwan - banana leaves and jasmine buds

Off to the side in the cordoned off area, there was a pavilion where tables and chairs had been set up.  Men sat at the table selling gold for casting the statue.  There were ingots of various weights on sale for 200, 300, 500, and 1,000 baht ($30.00 USD).  People paid for the metal and their name and the amount of their donation was recorded in a ledger - just as is done for weddings, funerals, monk ordinations, tambon roy wan (death anniversary) and special fund raising events at the Wats.

I went up to the tables to check out the gold.  I lifted up the ingots and was fairly certain that they were not gold.  The ingots were not as heavy as lead ingots of roughly the same size that I was familiar with.  I am also familiar with gold ingots fresh out of the smelter from my construction engineering career.  I then banged a couple of the ingots together and created a high pitched ping sound rather than the expected low bass thud of gold.  I was now convinced that the metal was not gold but more likely some type of copper alloy.  It then occurred to me that the casting metal was actually bronze - 90% copper and 10% tin with will create a "gold color" statue for a great deal less money.

Next to the metal desk, there was a tree which had many thin rectangles of gold and silver dangling in the breeze.  The thin metal disks, copper and tin, were embossed with writing and symbols.  People paid a small amount for each piece.  They removed the piece of their choice and used one of three available 16d nails to write their name, and birth date, number- month- year, on the metal.  Some people were not able to write, so a local man who is a policeman took the information from their national ID card and wrote it for them

Once a piece was completed, it was returned to the tree.  The next day, the completed pieces would be melted with the ingots to bring good luck and fortune to the donor.

Completed Metal Offerings

In the center of the casting area, a temporary furnace was blazing.  The mold for the Buddha statue had been placed upside down with the furnace built around it.  A large wood fueled fire was maintained in the furnace to cure the mold and drive out all moisture prior to casting the next day.

Temporary Furnace Blazing Away

Statue Mold Inside of Furnace

Off to the side of the furnace there were two smaller furnaces set up with crucibles inside of them for melting the ... bronze ingots.  These furnaces would be fuelled by lump charcoal with forced draft created by electrical fans.

Crucibles with some Metal Offerings

Crucibles Loaded For Melting the Next Day

We returned to our home at 5:30 P.M. to rest, sleep and prepare to return the next morning for the big pour and ceremony.

Camping Out

My ambition and goal is to show extraordinary people doing ordinary things.  In so doing, I wish to show how different people can appear, to provide a glimpse of other cultures, to celebrate the diversity of mankind, and to demonstrate that despite our appearances we are so much alike.

Living here in Northeast Thailand and being married to an ethnic Lao Loum  woman, I am fortunate to have many opportunities to accomplish my goal.

I have mentioned to friends that photography is a great deal like life itself; you have to make the best and most of the opportunities that are presented to you.  You have to have the capability and mindset to adapt and take advantage of unexpected situations and conditions.

In the environment that I now live in there are many cultural events, religious rituals, religious events, and many normal daily activities of the local peoples which provide opportunities to witness, photograph, and strive to meet my photography goal.

The Ubiquitous - "Monks Participating in Tak Bat Ritual" Photograph

Many of my photographs involve Theravada Buddhist Monks, quite often Samanens, Novice Monks.  I am intrigued by the juxtaposition of Buddhist Monks albeit novices and quite often these young "holy" men behaving like the young boys that they also are.

Samanen Joking

Samanens of Tahsang Village Making Pop Guns

I try to observe, understand share the different aspects of monastic life of the Theravada Monks.  Being a Monk involves a great deal more than walking around each morning to get your one meal of the day and meditating.  Just as with life outside of the Wat - things are not always what they first appear to be; there are the ways that things are supposed to be and there is the way that things are.  I like to show how and what things are in my world.

The Monks are people's fathers, brothers, sons, and friends.  They are ordinary people who have chosen an extraordinary way for their path to enlightenment and liberation. 

The past week was a special ritual out at Luang Por Pohm Likit's Wat outside of Udonthani in Ban Maet.  For awhile a new sala, worship hall, has been under construction.  It has been completed now with tiled floors, corrugated metal roofing, and religious murals painted on the one full wall of the structure.  However, the sala does not have a Buddha statue for the raised area where the Monks sit to participate in rituals and to eat their one meal of each day.

On February 1, 2558 BE (2015 AD) there was a ritual to cast a 500 KG Buddha statue for the new sala.  The previous day was a day of intense preparation for the actual pouring of metal the next day.  Besides local officials who were to participate in the ritual, there were many visiting Monks, some from as far away as Chiang Mai - at least an eight hour drive from Ban Maet.  To participate in the ritual the Monks arrived early.

Luang Por Pohm Likit has a vey small and humble structure where he sleeps with no room for guests.  On the Wat grounds there are two very primitive huts for Monks who maybe studying or visiting - room for two Monks but not sufficient for the approximately 12 visiting Monks.

What to do?  There are no accommodations in Ban Maet.  There is no Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Motel 6, or Motel 8 in Udonthani but plenty of other hotels.  Not that it matters - in general Monks do not stay in hotels.  They stay at local Wats when traveling.

No problem - the visiting Monks brought their own sleeping accommodations to stay out in the forest with Luang  Por Pohm Likit - they brought their own tents.

Monk Tent City

There were actually quite a few tents set up at the Wat.  One area set up for the Monks was isolated by a fence constructed by suspending plastic green nursery cloth from bamboo poles, bamboo stalks (I can't bring myself to call a grass a tree), teak trees, and other trees.  Another area, near the bathroom/wash facilities of the Wat was filled with small single person tents for the women who were participating in the two night religious retreat and rituals conducted with the Monks. The final area off to the edge of the grounds was occupied by the 10 person statue casting crew.

A Bhikkhu Walks Over to His Encampment

The younger Monks, the Novices, set up their tents closest to the wash facilities and next to the hut that the young samanen from the nearby family uses.  The more senior Monks, Bhikkhus, had their tents located further into the bamboo thicket and away from the younger Monks.

Young Monk's Camp - Washed Robes Drying Out

After eating their one meal of the day, the younger Monks retreated to their tents - one would think that they would seek the solitude of their tent to either study or to meditate.  I am not sure if that is the way that things are supposed to be or not - the reality is that they were inside playing video games on their cellphones.  Boys being boys once again and perhaps the reason the older Monks sought more isolated areas for their tents.

Samanens After Eating Their One Meal of the Day

 

After Duang had completed her meal with the other lay people, we returned to our home for awhile to rest before returning in the late afternoon.

It had been an interesting visit out to the Wat and I had seen something that I had not expected or imagined - Monks camping out.  Reflecting back, it makes absolute sense but too often we do not allow ourselves to think or imagine what we are not familiar with.  I was fortunate to experience first hand another aspect of life as a Theravada Buddhist Monk.