Posts tonen met het label Rice Paddy's. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label Rice Paddy's. Alle posts tonen

donderdag 15 maart 2018

#Thailand - Wonders of the Isaan plateau


                             The villages of Maha Sarakham have no problem charming visitors

WITH ARCHAIC moats and stone boundary markers indicating where the settlement of Champa Sri was located 1,000 years ago, the small Maha Sarakham town of Na Dun is sitting on a rich vein of history. 

Culture and religion flourished here atop Thailand’s vast northeastern plateau during the Dvaravati Period. Nowadays, they seem to be enjoying a revival.

Downtown Maha Sarakham is 45 minutes away by car. Na Dun welcomes visitors – many of them pilgrims – with the Phra That Na Dun, a shrine built in 1985 to house revered relics of the Lord Buddha. They were moved here from the original bronze stupa that was unearthed in 1979. 
.
.
On the morning we arrived, a nine-day temple fair was just beginning. About 5,000 residents were performing traditional Isaan dances of homage at the shrine. There was a colourful procession along the one-kilometre main road lined with food stalls and little shops selling handcrafts and other merchandise. 

After participating in a heart-cleansing ritual, we headed to a nearby hamlet, Ban Nong No Tai, where a troupe of dek thevada was a treating folks to a striking mor lam hun performance at a communal theatre. 

Artist Preecha Karoon got the dancing going in 2008 with the support of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. They bring in skilled mor lam and shadow-play enthusiasts to teach the youngsters how it’s done. They’re having fun as they help preserve traditions unique to the Northeast. 
..
.
“I worked at the Patravadi Theatre for two years, and for this some young talented people and I created our own puppets – they’re adapted from second-hand kratib,” says Preecha, referring to bamboo containers containing sticky rice. 

“The performers’ costumes are made from old wrap-skirts and the theatre itself was built with money we made performing in other locales. We also had the help of university lecturers in setting up home-stays and making souvenir hun kratib to sell. Most of all we’re all very grateful to Grandma Somsri Phadeechan, who donated the land.”

The story the troupe depicts draws on local legends and Buddhist lore. In anywhere from 10 minute to an hour, depending on the telling, they illustrate the lives of Sang Sin Chai and Angulimala, with three artists controlling each puppet figure. 

“We have 32 members who can be split up into three groups based on age,” Preecha says. “We spent three months rehearsing. It’s a new approach, with mor lam artists singing and playing the khene [mouth organ] as they recount the story.”
.