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Introducing Dan Sai & Around
For 362 days a year, Dan Sai is an innocuous little town, a borderline backwater community where life revolves around a small market and a dusty main street. For the remaining three days, however, it is the site of one of the country’s liveliest and loudest festivals.
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Falling during the fourth lunar month (usually June), Dan Sai’s Phi Ta Khon Festival (also called Bun Phra Wet) combines the Phra Wet Festival – during which recitations of the Mahavessantara Jataka (past-life stories of the Buddha) are supposed to enhance the listener’s chance of being reborn in the lifetime of the next Buddha – with Bun Bâng Fai (Rocket Festival). For those wishing to plunge headlong into Isan life, this curious cross between the drunken revelry of Carnival and the spooky imagery of Halloween is a must-see.
The origins of the Phi Ta Khon Festival are shrouded in ambiguity, but some aspects of the festival appear to be related to tribal Thai – possibly Tai Dam – spirit cults. In fact, the dates for the festival are divined by Jao Phaw Kuan, a local spirit medium who channels the information from Jao Saen Meuang, the town’s guardian deity.
Last updated: Sep 24, 2008
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