Photo credit to Serena Davies. A view of the Royal Chapel, Luang Prabang
This Buddhist festival celebrates and remembers the spirits of the dead each year in Luang Prabang. During the festival, offerings are presented to Buddhist monks, mostly of food but sometimes clothes as well. On the final day of the festival, which is always the Full Moon, every family makes their way to a temple to make offerings to the deceased.
It is especially important to give offerings to the deceased a year after a person has died and the festival is similar in this respect to the Japanese festival of Obon. In both festivals, the Buddha's exhortation to honour the dead and present them with offerings is observed. To forego these familial duties to the dead has disastrous consequences - if the spirit does not receive offerings, then it will bring the living bad luck.
A good place to be for the Festival of the Dead is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang. During the festival, the Mekong is jammed with amazing gold and red boats, beautifully carved, with snake-heads for prows. The snakes are known as nagas and local beliefs take them to be water spirits which live in seven points of the river around Luang Prabang. The naga spirits snatch small children to be witnesses to their gloriously ornate weddings, said to take place at the bottom of the river.
The naga also appears in Buddhist literature when the God Ananta comes out of a pond when the Buddha is sitting contemplating. A storm is imminent and just as the first raindrops fall, Ananta slithers out of the lake, coils its body for the Buddha to sit upon and then spreads its cobra hood to form an umbrella for the Enlightened One. For this reason, the boats are sacred and are normally kept inside the temple precincts.
Each temple has its own parish equivalent. During the festival, 40 men from each temple-parish volunteer to race in their temple's boats against men from different areas.
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New Year 1-Jan
Army National Day 20-Jan
Makhabusa Day 8-Feb
Women International Day 8-Mar
Lao Popular Revolutionary Party Day 22-Mar
Lao Buddhist New Year 13-16-Apr
Labor International Day 1-May
Visakhabusa Day 7-May
Child International Day 1-Jun
Khao Phansa Day 5-Jul
Constitution Day 15-Aug
Khao Padab Din Day 18-Aug
Power Seizing Day 23-Aug
Khao Salak Day 2-Sep
Oak Phansa Day 2-Oct
Boat Racing Festival Day 3-Oct
Teacher National Day 7-Oct
That Luang Festival Day 31-Oct
National Day 2-Dec |
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The Quiet in the Land Art and Education Project (October 6-11, 2006)
October 7, 2006 at 2 PM: Official opening of contemporary art exhibitions at the Luang Prabang National Museum in Laos
THE QUIET IN THE LAND art and education project invited between 2004 and 2006 more than 35 artists and scholars from the Lao PDR, the Mekong Region, and elsewhere to visit Luang Prabang, Laos and collaborate with a wide range of local community members. The project is funded by a devoted group of individuals, foundations, and government agencies from several countries. For more information on the project, please visit our website at www.thequietintheland.com.
From October 6 to October 11, 2006 THE QUIET IN THE LAND is organizing in Luang Prabang an event with many of its participants (artists, scholars, educators) who came to Luang Prabang as part of our residency program. We have also invited many of our supporters.
The program of these five days will consist of the openings of the exhibitions, a workshop for the participants, the launching of our Limited Edition, celebrations, and visits to the 24 monasteries as part of Boun Ok Pansa.ÃÆÃÆâ€ââà | | |
