The Buddha Statue - The Rest of the Story

Two months ago, 1 February, I photographed and documented the casting of a new bronze statue of Buddha for the new Vihear (Wihan) at the Wat in the forest outside of Ban Maet.

http://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2015/02/casting-wats-new-buddha-statue-day-2.html

After being cast here, the casting traveled to Loei where another larger statue was cast.  Later both castings were transported one day south to the factory in Chonburi for final assembly and finishing.

At first it was my understanding that the completed statue would return in a week.  It then became two weeks and was actually returned after two months. Returning yesterday was actually very good timing whether intended or not.  We are now entering into the Songkran, New Year, season.

Songkran is officially  April 13 to 15 ... Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  That is the way things are supposed to be.  However there is the way things actually are:  There is the Saturday and Sunday before the official start of the festival and there are the two days after the official closing of the holiday.  The Songkran Festival is also known as "Thailand's 7 Deadliest Days" due to the number of traffic deaths.

Although it is the first week of April, many preparations and rituals related to Songkran Festival are underway.  The placing of the new Buddha statue fit quite well into the spirit of the season - a season of joy and happiness.

The celebration of the arrival and placement of the statue was supposed to start at 8:00 A.M.  Based upon the issues of scheduling and timing that we experienced for the casting of the statue, we decided to get out to the Wat at 7:30 A.M. to ensure that we did not miss out on anything.

Well the law of averages does exist - even out in rural Isaan.  Nothing really happened until 8:30 A.M. when I was asked to haul a bunch (10+) people in our truck out to Highway 2410 which passes along the front of Ban Maet.  It turned out that many vehicles and people were assembling alongside the highway.  Soon Luang Por Pohm Likit arrived in a decorated truck bearing the new statue on the flat bed.  The Monk was also accompanied by a truck bearing a large speaker system and several musicians playing joyous ethnic music.  It turned out that the plan was for the truck bearing the statue to lead the procession of the people walking and dancing the 2 KM of dirt road back to the Wat.

I determined that the best place for photographs would be back at the corner just before the Wat.  It was another hot morning here and the sun was very bright - not particularly good for photography and definitely not good for standing out in the sun.  I walked out to the corner from the Wat and waited, and waited, and waited even some more.  I eventually walked back to the Wat and returned with a plastic chair that I set up under the shade from the small farmer's hut at the corner ... and waited some more.  Eventually a saamlaw, a three wheeled transport, arrived filled with some dancers.  The dancers, I can not honestly call them "girls", were excited to see my camera and posed for a group photo.

The Dancers Waiting to Join the Procession

After a while we heard the energetic music of the approaching procession.

Buddha Followed By the Dancing Villagers

Villagers Following the Statue

The dancers joined the procession to walk the short distance to the Wat.  Their arrival was punctuated by whooping and hollering that typically is associated with a wedding procession here in Isaan. It was a definite joyous occasion.

Arriving at the Wat

Upon entering the Wat grounds, the procession was joined by people who had been waiting for its arrival.  My wife is very reserved and somewhat shy ... except for things related to her faith.  Duang managed some how and some way to grab a prime spot to accompany the statue on its three time clockwise circumambulation of the Vihear.

Duang Escorts the Statue Around the Vihear

After three times around the Vihear the truck, transporting the statue, stopped at the edge of the building to the left of the raised platform where it would be placed at its final location.  I was curious s to how the statue would be rigged in to location.  I did not see a crane or even a boom truck to lift and place the statue.  I did not even see a ramp, rollers or even metal pipe to facilitate moving the heavy object.  Just how did the people move and place the statue?  Similar to the famous slogan of the investment firm, Smith Barney, "We make money the old fashioned way.  We earn it."  In the case of moving the heavy statue - They moved the statue the old fashioned way.  They lifted and moved it by hand. - many hands!

Some Say "It takes a village to raise a child" - It definitely takes a village to set a statue

Many of the village men surrounded the statue and grabbed a hold of it.  Under the commands of one of the men, they slightly lifted the statue and tilted the statue to a horizontal position.  Perhaps a concession to safety - one man placed a mon, small rectangular pillow, at the base of the statue's neck.  All went well and without much struggling, the statue was placed and slid into its final location.

Once  the statue was set, men poured some water on it and gently wiping the water. squashed bugs, and hand prints from the surface.

It was now time for the daily ritual of the people offering food to the Monks.  Yesterday because of the special nature of the day, there were more Monks participating in the ritual.  Some Monks from a more established Wat in the vicinity attended the ritual.  I suspect that the Abbot from that Wat was necessary to ensure that the process of enshrining the statue was properly done.  The Abbot always sits to far left of the lines of Monks - sitting in the front row and to the right of the others. Luang Por Pohm Likit sits to his immediate left.  There were two rows of Monks yesterday including several semanans (young boys on their school break as novice Monks).

After the Monks had completed their only meal of the day, the gathered laypeople ate the remaining food - a sort of community breakfast that strengths and reinforces the community as well as family bonds.

After the lay meal had been completed and the area cleaned up, a special ritual was conducted for the new statue.  There was a great deal of chanting by the Monks as well as by the laypeople.  As is typical for the rituals, the laypeople were lead by a man called a "tapakhao"  Tapakhao, the same as a  Brahman, are elderly men who were once Monks for a considerable time and have received advanced training in spiritual as well as ritual matters.

I especially enjoy the chanting of the Monks.  They chant in the language of the people who first brought Buddhism to Thailand - Pali.  The chanting is rhythmic and energetic to the point that is almost hypnotic. The voices of the various Monks seem to compliment if not harmonize with each other.  The Senior Monk leads the chanting almost always uses a microphone along with an amplifier.  Typically another of older Monks or a younger Monk with greater training will also chant using a microphone and amplification.  I have not figured it out yet but every time I witness the chanting, the Senior Monk will pause either to catch his breadth or to check on the chanting of the other Monks.  After a short pause he will resume is chanting as if he never skipped a beat.  For me, this hesitation and pause adds to the drama and atmosphere of the ritual.

I often reflect and appreciate as I photographing and witnessing the ritual that this has been going on for almost 2,500 years.  There is a connection to people for over 100 generations that is repeated every day.

As I look upon the laypeople participating in the rituals, I see babies and toddlers being taught the ways of the ritual - ensuring another generation will be connected.

The new Buddha statue, like all the other Buddha statues, serves as a reminder and focal point of the middle way that Buddhists believe will lead them to liberation ... enlightenment.

Mushroom Farming in Isaan

This blog was a long time in coming.  I started to write the blog eleven days ago, but I was not certain regarding the facts and details of the process for cultivating mushrooms here in Northeast Thailand.

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and Google, I found some excellent information related to how mushrooms are supposed to be grown here. An excellent source was the "Mushroom Grower's Handbook" 2004 by MushWorld (if some one knows about how mushrooms are supposed to be grown is has got to be these guys!)

The sugar cane harvest is winding down now, but outside of the Kumphawapi Sugar Cane Company, there are huge mounds of waste - "bagasse" - a waste product that Duang and I refer to as "key oi" (sugar shit).  Bagasse smells sickening  - a combination of extremely smelly feet and overpowering sweetness.  Bagasse is composed of fiber, moisture, and soluble solids.  It is roughly one-half cellulose, one-third carbon, one percent nitrogen, with some potassium and phosphorous.

Often during our travels out to Duang's village we see people picking through the fresh moist mounds of bagasse seeking out mushrooms.  Local farmers also purchase truckloads of the waste to add to their  land as a soil conditioner.

My research indicated that sugar bagasse is used as a substrate for cultivating oyster mushrooms.  I became comfortable in my belief that Duang's relatives were growing oyster mushrooms.  Delving further into the handbook, Chapter 5, I started to have my doubts regarding the mushroom process in Isaan that I had observed previously. The handbook showed substrate being made and placed in small plastic bags that would then get inoculated with spawn. It outlined spawn preparation. The chapter also discussed incubation as well as pasteurization.

Duang's Aunt Preparing Mushrooms

I asked Duang what kind of mushrooms were the people growing.  She replied "Hed Fang"

With that information, I returned to my Internet research, this time- Chapter 2 of the handbook. Lo and behold, there was a table, Table 1, that was a list of commercially cultivated mushrooms in Thailand.  In addition to the common name, and Latin name the table provided the Thai name for the mushroom.  The last entry in the table was "Hed Fang" - Straw mushroom.  Things were starting to make more sense - I had seen rows of straw mounds where underneath I knew mushrooms were growing.

The remainder of the chapter provided details that confirmed some of my observations, straw mushrooms being grown from December to April  but a great detail of information no where near what I had seen on my trips out to the family mushroom plot.

It turns out that mushroom cultivation here in Isaan is another example of "The ways that things are supposed to be and the way that they really are."

I have written several times about the duality and dichotomy of life here in Isaan, I now realize that it also applies to matters other than religion, morality, ethics, and politics.

Aside from the way mushrooms are supposed to be cultivated, I will now share how they are cultivated by Duang's family along with several other villagers that I have observed.

Duang's Aunt Processing Straw Mushroom Spawn

One morning when we drove out to Tahsang Village, we saw Duang's aunt, Kwan's grandmother, sitting on the raised rustic platform located outside of her house busily working.  It turned out that she was preparing to grow some mushrooms.

Placed on the ground off to her right, were several large Kraft paper bags each packed solid with several clear plastic bags.  The plastic bags were stuffed with a moist organic mass and the ends were secured with PVC plastic collars.  The bags looked exactly like the bags used to grow mushrooms the way that they are supposed to according to the handbook - but not the Tahsang Village way.

Duang's aunt was busy removing the PVC collar from the bags and pulling the compressed organic cylinders from the polypropylene bags.  A large plastic tub, in front of her, rested on the platform. The tub had seen better days - about 50% of its rim had become detached from the thin walls of the container.  However the tub still was fit for many purposes, just not as many as previously.

A grating, perhaps a recycled oven rack or part of a display case covered part of the black tub.  After freeing the cylinders from their confines of the bags, Duang's aunt broke them up with her hands along with the action of running them back and forth across the grating.  Broken organic matter accumulated in the tub beneath the grating.

When the black tub was filled with broken organic matter, Duang's aunt added some handfuls of a prepared powder (special super secret powder?) using her hands to thoroughly mix and blend the contents of the tub. I suspect that the prepared powder contained nutrients and chemicals to assist the bloom and growth of the mushrooms. She then placed the loose mixture into the empty Kraft paper bags.  Later that day, at 4:00 P.M. the mixture would be used at the site of the family mushroom plot.

We dropped by the mushroom plot at 4:00 P.M.  The sun sets around 5:30 P.M. so the temperature was more bearable.

Kwan, Pare, and Their Grandfather Arrive to Work On Mushrooms

Duang's uncle arrived with his two granddaughters to work the mushrooms.  The plot consisted of several rows of plastic covered mounds.

The first task was to remove the polyethylene plastic sheet covering each row. Removing the sheeting carefully off to the side of each row revealed a line of compacted rectangles of what I assumed to be sugar bagasse for the substrate to grow the mushrooms.  Wrong!  I checked with Duang's uncle and it turned out that the blocks were actually formed out of cassava waste from the local mill.  I asked about what layers of other components did he use to make the rectangular blocks - the handbook had listed the layers and components to construct blocks.  Oh I forgot ... that is the way that they are supposed to be constructed.  The way that they are actually constructed, at least in Tahsang Village, is to put cassava processing waste in a wood form and compact it to form the free standing substrates.

Once the substrates in a row had been uncovered, Duang's uncle walked down the row sprinkling by hand the material that his wife had prepare earlier in the day.

Sprinkling Spawn on Substrates

Once the spawn material had been distributed along a row, the row was sprinkled with water from a watering can.  Once a row had been watered, the plastic sheet was then carefully placed over the substrates.  The free ends of the plastic sheet were held down with loose soil that bordered the rows.

Three days later the plastic sheet was removed from the rows and after hand made home made bamboo strips where installed to form hoops along the row, the sheeting was placed over the row of substrates.  A thick mat of rice straw was placed over the tent row formed by the hoops and plastic sheet.

Mushrooms Ready For Harvest

After three days, the straw was removed and the plastic sheeting was pulled to the side to expose the first harvest of Hed Fang.  Using ordinary kitchen knives, the women carefully cut the mushrooms ensuring that a portion of the stem remained on the substrate.  After harvesting of the crop, the sheeting was returned and then covered with straw.

Three separate crops of mushrooms are produced from a row - each crop about 3 days apart.

Preparing Harvested Mushrooms for Market.

The family receives roughly 70 baht a kilogram ($1.06 USD/pound) wholesale for their mushroom crops.  The family also enjoys the mushrooms in their cuisine.

I am continually impressed in the ability of the Lao Loum people here in Isaan to do what is necessary to care for themselves and family.  I have seen them grow rice, cultivate corn, sugar cane, peanuts and cassava.  They weave their own fishnets, and  baskets.

The people are very resourceful and self-reliant.  I consider myself very fortunate to be able to observe and document this way of life.  I consider it to be my responsibility to share this way of life with others if for no other reason than to educate others as to how others live.

Planting Cassava



Planting Cassava In NE Thailand

My last blog entry was about harvesting cassava (manioc, tapioca, Brazilian Arrowroot) on Duang's aunt's land eleven days ago, so it is logical that my next blog entry would be about replanting the cassava crop.  Replanting?  Yes.  As part of the harvesting process, the long slender stalks of the cassava plant were saved.  The stalks stripped of branches and leaves were gathered up from the field and transported back to the family home.

Back at the farmer's home or at a willing relative's home, the stalks are stacked like cord wood.  The stalks are then cut into 8 to 9 inch long pieces with a heavy cane knife - one stalk at a  time - a job performed by both men and women.  The short pieces of stalk are collected in woven baskets.  The pieces are then brought over to a tub of water where they are washed and wet down before placing them into recycled fertilizer or rice bags.  The stalk sections remain in the bags for three days, after which they are transported out to a prepared field and planted by hand.

After harvesting the field eleven days ago, Duang's family waited a few days before preparing the stalks from the harvest.  Yesterday they called to let us know that they would be replanting the field that had been previously harvested.  I grabbed my camera bag and we headed out to Tahsang Village - arriving at 10:00 A.M.

Although the cassava was being planted by hand, the actual preparation of the field is performed by a tractor.  Our weather has turned hot ... eleven days of heavily overcast grey skies with high temperatures around 38 degrees ... 38 degrees Celsius (centigrade) - 100F!  Upon our arrival, the temperature was already 34C  (94F).  Besides the heat, there was a great deal of dust.  The rains just before the harvest eleven days ago were just a tease.  The monsoon rains have not returned yet although the weather is more unsettled.  The ground is now very dry.

The heavy furrows created by the tractor plowing the ground were bone dry - fine particles of clay and slightly larger grains of sand without any organic matter or moisture to bind them together.  I placed the cover to a piece of my photo gear on a fertilizer bag laying flat on the ground.  When we packed to return to our home 30 minutes, I was stunned at the amount of dust on the cover.  I was glad that I had decided not to change lenses in that environment.

Loading Up Basket With Cassava Stems

Workers were kept busy loading up woven hand baskets with cassava stalks from the recycle fertilizer bags containing the processed stems from the house.  After loading up their baskets, the workers walked along the dusty furrows across the field.  At set intervals along the furrow, they tossed one of the 6-9 inch long stalks on top of the raised mounds bordered by the furrows.

Distributing Cassava Stalks Along the Furrows

While half of the crew distributed the stalks, the other half of the crew followed along, sticking the short stalks into the soft mounded earth.

Another Stalk In the Dirt

There was a rhythm to their labor - the work proceeded at a rather quick pace - a choreographed series of movements developed and fine tuned over many years of toil.

A Busy Morning In the Fields Outside Tahsang Village

The parked farm truck offered a little relief to the workers - a jug of cool drinking water with a common cup, a couple recycled fertilizer bags placed on the ground to sit upon, and just a tiny bit of some shade.  Things were so bad that the family dog spent all his time underneath the truck.

After one-half hour, I started gathering up my gear.  I walked over to my wife and asked her if she wanted to go home.  She quickly nodded "Yes" and actually got back to the truck before I did.

I could not imagine spending another 6 to 6-1/2 hours out there photographing let alone planting the cassava.  I could not imagine, but for the workers, it was their reality, their life.  I am impressed with people that I refer to as survivors, people who do what is necessary to support themselves as well as their family.  For many people surviving requires efforts and a life that many people can not imagine.

However, seeing and learning how people survive provides inspiration and admiration of what people are capable of.  It also demonstrates how much that we take for granted is not necessary to survive or to be happy.

Cassava Harvest In Isaan

Harvesting Cassava In Northeast Thailand

These are busy times once again in the fields of Northeast Thailand, a region known as Isaan (Isarn, Esarn, Isan).  The sugar cane harvest which started in December continues albeit winding down.  The weather is changing headed towards the rainy season.

The sugar cane harvest that commenced in December continues albeit tapering off and will be over in the middle of next month. In addition to the cutting of cane, workers are busy planting the next crop of cane.  Some of the cut canes are reserved and not sent to the local refineries.  The reserved canes are laid flat in narrow shallow trenches across the fields. After being sprinkled by hand with dry commercial fertilizer, the canes are covered with dirt.  In short time especially with the return of the rains new canes sprout up from the old buried canes.

In anticipation of the full return of the monsoon rains in the next one to two months, farmers are preparing their rice paddies.  Dikes are being built and maintained as necessary.  The land bounded by the dikes are being turned over to bury vegetation, aerate the ground, and prepare it to receive and hold the rainwater to come - water necessary for the wet cultivation method of rice cultivation.

Now is also the time for harvesting and selling sweet corn along the side of the road.  Unlike the USA, sweet corn is sold cooked and not raw at roadside stands.  Next to the stand you will typically find large pots or kettles filled with salted water and husked corn.  On the shelf of the primitive stand recycled plastic shopping bags of cooked corn are displayed for sale.

Two weeks ago we had some rain 6 out of 7 days.  The rain was not a great deal, roughly six millimeters each day, but it was significant in the sense that it allowed activities related to local agriculture to commence.

The recent rains have allowed the harvest of cassava to proceed.  Cassava, also known as Brazilian Arrowroot, Manioc, and Tapioca, is one of the important crops here in Northeast Thailand.  Cassava is drought resistant and can grow in poor soils - two conditions that Isaan has in over abundance.  The rains end in September and do not resume until April or May.  The soil of Isaan is a combination of sand and clay with very little, if any, organic components.

Cutting Cassava Stalks

Cassava is a woody shrub that has tubers that are a source of carbohydrates.  Thailand is the world's greatest exporter of dried cassava.

Here in Isaan, the cassava is harvested when the stalks are about two meters (six feet) tall.  The plants achieve two meters height about six months after being planted.  Besides being drought resistant and capable of growing in poor soil, cassava presents other advantages to the Lao Loum farmers of Isaan.

First of all, it is not always necessary to purchase seeds, or cuttings to plant a crop of cassava.  If you harvest a crop of cassava, the stalks are kept, processed, and replanted to produce a new crop.  If you do not have a crop to process for the next crop, you can purchase cuttings for 2,000 Baht (approx $66 USD) for one rai (0.39 acres) of land.

Secondly, it is not necessary to purchase fertilizer for the cultivation of cassava. There is also no need to purchase insecticides to apply to the crop.

Thirdly, once the crop is planted, no additional labor is required until the crop is ready to be harvested.

The market price for cassava today is 60,000 Baht (approx $2,000 USD) for 5 rai of crop delivered to the processor in nearby Kumphawapi.

Cassava is harvested by hand,  Duang's Aunt had called to let us know that they would be harvesting 5 rai of her cassava crop the following day.  The harvesting crew was comprised of 3 hired hands and 3 family members.  It would take 4 days to harvest the crop and an additional 2 days to process the stalks for replanting with one day to plant the stalks for the next crop.  The hired help receive 300 baht ($10 USD) and two meals for an 8 hour day.

Duangchan Cutting Cassava Stems

The harvest crew was split into two groups, each with distinct tasks to perform.  The women, whom Duang joined in working, used sugar cane knives to cut the tall slender stalks about 25 cm (10 inches) above the ground. They then skillfully used the knives to lop off the branches and leaves.  They walked along the rows of stalks continuing this process until their non-knife hand could no longer hold anymore stalks at which point the bar stalks were placed in a neat bundle on the ground to be collected later.

Duang Trimming A Cassava Stalk

In the meantime the men were occupied extracting the tubers from the ground.  The men used a special tool to pry the tubers from the ground in which they have grown deeper and bigger over the previous six months.  The tool was a simple tool based upon the engineering principle of the lever. The tool was a stout bamboo pole, about 2.5 meters long (8 foot) with a chisel point on one end.  About 76 cm (28 in) from the chisel tip there was a metal collar around the pole with a stepped metal plate extending from the collar.  The function of the metal plate is to grab and secure the stem stub sticking out of ground to convert it into a fulcrum necessary to create the mechanical advantage associated with a lever for pulling the tubers out of the ground.

Base of Cassava Tuber Extraction Tool

To extract the mass of tubers, often entangled together, the worker positions the pole so that the stub of the plant stem is grabbed and captured by the metal plate of the extraction tool.  Once the stem is secured, the worker lifts the free end of the pole as high as is necessary or as high as he can to pull the tuber roots out of the ground.  This is physically demanding work since the tubers are large, deep, entangled, and have not been disturbed since they were planted six months earlier.

Pulling Cassava Roots Out of the Ground

Once the majority of the plant's tubers are pulled above ground, the worker uses his hands to completely break them free from the Earth's grasp.  Many times the worker has to bend down or kneel on the ground so that he can remove any broken roots still embedded in the ground.

The masses from several plants are stacked together to await loading into a farm wagon or truck to then be transported to the local commercial processor in Kumphawapi.  Soon the field is dotted and lined with mounds of cassava roots and stacked  stems.

Stacking Cassava Tubers

Unfortunately with the anticipated return of the seasonal rains, the temperatures are increasing.  Our high temperature for the past week has been in the high 30's ... that is high 30's Celsius ... 38C - 100F.  Mid-April is our hottest time of the year with highs of 100 -105F and lows at night of 85-90F.  The high temps and rainy weather are part of the cycle of life here in Isaan.  They are necessary for life to continue.  They are necessary to nourish the people with their staple rice for the up coming year.

The cassava harvest is a milestone along the cycle of rural life here in Isaan for the Lao Loum people and those who choose to live amongst them.

Pouring of Coconut Water; Pouring of Water

Prepared Green Coconuts

After a relatively long spell, we attended three funerals in the past week.  To some it may seem that I may be chasing funerals for photographic opportunities.  That is not true, family obligations and community obligation to attend funerals gives me plenty of photography opportunities.

Funerals here in Isaan, Northeast Thailand, amongst the ethnic Lao people are milestone life events.  The Theravada Buddhist funeral ritual is  comprised of many rites, traditions, and offerings - all intended to free the spirit of the deceased person, prepare the spirit for the journey to a new world, and help the spirit to come back to a better life upon reincarnation.

The ritual is a combination and adaptation of rites from the Animist, Brahmin (pre-Hindu), and Buddhist belief systems.

Preparing Green Coconuts for Funeral Ritual

One of the last rites of the ethnic Lao Loum (Lowland Lao) funeral, just before rolling the consumable coffin containing the body into the cremation furnace, is to cleanse and purify the corpse by pouring fresh green coconut water over it.

Off to the side of the cremation furnace, while the Monks and laypeople are participating in merit making rituals in the sala, worship hall, a man or sometimes men prepare green coconuts to pour the water that they contain on the corpse.  Using heavy sugar cane knives, the people take three to four slices off of the bottom of the thick fibrous husk of the coconut.  This allows the coconuts to sit flat on the ground and ultimately on the concrete floor of the platform to the doors of the furnace.

After the bottom of the coconuts are flattened. several slices ate taken off the top of the coconut to expose the top of the actual nut buried beneath the husk.  The point of the knife is then used to open up a small hole from which the water will exit.  The prepared coconuts are carried up the side stairway to the furnace platform and placed off to the side of the head of the coffin.

The Abbott along with Ex-Husband of  the Deceased Woman About to Pour Coconut Water

At the conclusion of merit making ritual in the sala, the senior designated Monk leads the Monks up the front stairway to the head of the coffin.  Laypeople remove the tin light weight cover from the consumable coffin.  The senior Monk inspects and supervises the preparation of the corpse for cremation.  At his direction, the string bindings at the wrists, ankles, and waist are severed using either a sugar cane knife or sickle.  The cloth, typically either a wash cloth or hand towel is also removed fro the face of the corpse.

The senior Monk then pours coconut water over the body starting from the head down to the feet.  He is followed by other Monks from the local wat or wats.  The Monks who follow the senior Monk share coconuts between themselves to ensure that each is able to pour coconut water on the body.

Part of the contingent of Monks are male members of the immediate family.  On the day of cremation, sons, some nephews, grandsons, and some uncles will have their heads and eyebrows shaved to become Monks for the day.  The relatives, earlier in the day, had gone through a simplified ordination ritual to be able to participate as Monks to earn merit for themselves and more importantly for the deceased person.

Closely following the Monks are members of the immediate family - each pouring some coconut water on the body.  Some family members will gently and lovingly rub the water over face while wishing the spirit good luck on its journey and subsequent rebirth.

Cleansing the Spirit with Coconut Water

When there is no longer any coconut water available to pour over the corpse, ordinary water is scooped out of a nearby bucket using a bowl or a glass to pour over the body.

Pouring Ordinary Water Over the Body

The pouring of coconut water is a very important aspect of the Lao Loum funeral ritual.  It is believed that since the water is contained in a nut surrounded by a thick husk from high up in a tree, the water is considered pure - unlike the water from the ground. The coconut water is believed to cleanse and purify the spirit for its journey to another world.

From my 8 years of exposure to the ethnic Lao culture, I would say that the banana plant, bamboo, sticky rice, and the coconut are essential to Lao Loum society.  The pouring of coconut water over the corpse is symbolic of the hope that the spirit will be reborn in a place that is fertile and with sufficient water to grow rice.  Since coconut water is enjoyed by many of the Lao Loum people and is recognized for it thirst quenching ability, the pouring also is symbolic of nourishing and refreshing the spirit for its journey.

Pouring of ordinary water also symbolizes the wishes of the people for the spirit to be reborn in a fertile land suitable for rice cultivation.

For the Buddhists, there can be no life without first death.  The funeral ritual and the Theravada Buddhist attitude towards death reinforce and affirm the beliefs of  impermanence and the opportunity to help the departed in their journey to enlightenment.