Asohn Vi
As I stood in the Maha Buddha Gaya Pagoda, I could hear the voice of an old woman praying from the pagoda's south end. The voice praying was not strange for me, for I grew up inside Burma. But it was a little surprising, for though I stood in Thailand the prayer I heard was that of an aged person in Burma.
In my community in Burma, aged people offer food to Lord Buddha and monks in the morning. Then they look for flowers, rest at lunch time and spend the afternoon making flower rings. In the evening, they go to monasteries and pray. Standing there, I already knew what the old woman was doing. When I spoke with her, she told me she prays every day, unless she is sick. With ten other people she prays everyday, and makes an exception only four days a month.
The temple I stood in is located in Wangka, an ethnic Mon community on a small inlet of Lake Vajiralongkorn, in Thailand's Kanchanaburi Province. Across the inlet is the town of Sankghlaburi. Five hours to the northwest is Bangkok. Twenty minutes to the east is Burma.
The community was founded by the prominent abbot Uttama in 1949. Many of the people in Wangka were once refugees. They came to Thailand to study in Thai schools or, more commonly, to work or avoid armed conflict and appalling human rights conditions in Burma. Wangka connects to Sangkhlaburi via the longest handmade wooden bridge in Thailand, and the bridge is a metaphor for the village: lifeline for the Mon people. Though U Uttama passed away in October 2006, Wangka's population is now about 8,000.
A sign-board at the gate of the village bears the words "Mon cultural village" in Thai script. Likewise, street names and other announcements are written in Thai. Although cultural images are not obviously visible on normal days in Wangka, they are everywhere on religious days as people come and go in traditional Mon red and white. Fridays, too, see 2,000 school children in traditional dress, for on this day the Thai schools permit children to shed their government uniforms. Wangka is, in other words, the place where Thailand-born-Mons and Burma-born-Mons can converge
Religious connection
Like Mon people in Burma, Wangka celebrates "Bor Kamot-Kaban." The festival is unique to Mon people, who have been holding it for five hundred years. The festival began in 1019-1020 in the Buddhist era. It is held to commemorate the rule of the Mon king Dhama Zaydi, who sent monks on the ships Seittara Duta and Rama Duta to develop their religious thinking in Sri Lanka. When the monks did not return, the king built a temporary ship of bamboo and paper. Loaded with one thousand offerings, he sent it sailing into the ocean, accompanied by prayers from the Mon people. Soon after, Rama Duta was safely home in port. Mon people have been celebrating the day ever since. In Wangka, it was celebrated for the fifteenth time on 14 September 2008.
The festival is traditionally celebrated in the monastery or near the pagoda. The day before the full moon, young boys go to the forest to cut bamboo while young girls collect flowers and fragrant items. Community elders guide the youth and help them make umbrellas and traditional things. The monastery or pagoda is crowded with young and old people until a boat has been constructed of bamboo and ornaments prepared for its adornment. In spite of heavy rain on the traditional day, people of Wangka built an eight foot wide, eighteen foot long and ten foot tall ship in front of the pagoda. Hundreds of poles, flags, flowers and other offerings were placed on the ship as Thailand born Mons and Burma born Mons came together to exchange ideas, prayers and visions.
Is it a focal point?
In the past, villagers worked in gardens and cultivated farms. Today, many young people struggling to find work migrate to cities, or abroad. Few can return to their village to participate in their traditional festivals, said Mi Alanyar, who helped to organize Wangka's Bor Kamot-Kaban. This makes the festival in Thailand all the more important. "It's the time for Mons from all over to make 'merit' together. This year more young people participated in the ceremonies than ever."
"Bor Kamot-Kaban' ceremony used to be held in Ban Kadi Mon village, near Bangkok," said Nai Kay Thit, the owner of a Bangkok-based tour company. "But now, this ceremony is held only in Wangka. This kind of Mon traditional ceremony is fading out in Thailand, but Mon people in Burma continue to hold it."
"I was born in Wangka. Everyone could speak the Mon language because of efforts by U Uttama. Mons born in this village do not identify as Thai Mons, though they are not from Burma. They identify as Wangka Mons," said Nai Sein Aung, 44, who is a member of Wangka's village administration.
"We attract visitors with our Bor Kamot-Kaban ceremony. It is a significant ceremony in Thailand, for it is held nowhere else. We are very pleased to hold this unique ceremony. In the future, we would also like to show Nyaung Yay Thoum Pwe, the festival for water consecrated and poured around a banyan tree. We would also like to hold the Nivan Zay Pwe festival, which is a festival of free food held as a communal celebration," continued Nai Sein Aung. "Neither of these festivals is seen in Thailand. We had many visitors and participants in Bor Kamo-Kaban this year. The big aim is to maintain our culture."
To build
Ships for Kor Kamot-Kaban are built with bamboo, colored paper, and wood. In some villages, the ship is built on wheels so that it can travel through the community, receiving donations. In other places, the ship is built on chairs and receives offering in the pagoda, but never sails. It most villages, the ships are built to float. After receiving offerings, the ships are set a sail down rivers or into lakes and oceans.
The festival is held before dawn. Monks begin the ceremony by reading scripture near the ship. Offerings and prayers are then made. Hot air balloons are various shapes are released into the sky. In Wangka, I saw a group of boys brought large, large colorful balloons to the temple in trucks. They released the hot air balloons, with tails of small lanterns and fireworks streaming behind. In Wangka, the ship was set a sail in Lake Vajiralongkorn the next day.
All of Sangkhlaburi's monasteries, Thai or Mon, are invited to Wangka's festival every year. They receive offerings of food, honey bees and sweets, among others. I saw the new abbot, U Maha Suchat, moving around the pagoda throughout the night until the ceremony was over.
Monks and some scholars can explain the details of the tradition. Most people understand the festival as a time to make merit and earn good luck. Most Mon families in Burma have at least one close relative working abroad. Offering food on the ship is intended for the loved ones working away from the family. Old tradition meets new reality and the hope is that the family members, like Rama Duta, return home safely. In Thailand, as in Burma, the festival is a familial and communal event. It is both an expression of Buddhist beliefs and cultural connection. For Mon people in Wangka, it is an attempt to live like Mon people in Burma, to show the similarity, and the unity, between Mons separated by the border.
