This Sunday, Ban Saeng Pha community in Loei's Na Haeo district will celebrate Songkran with a unique merit-making procession called Hae Ton Dokmai.
Ton dokmai means "flowering tree", but here, it does not refer to a real tree. Instead, it is a woven bamboo tower, heavily decorated with colourful flowers.
The tradition dates back more than 400 years. Locals build ton dokmai as offerings to Lord Buddha on the traditional New Year's Day in Wat Sri Pho Chai Sang Pha. They believe that they will be blessed with plentiful rainfall for the coming rice-cultivation season.
The building of the ton dokmai is done in a single day. The activity starts early in the morning, when bamboo poles are cut and made into thin pieces for weaving. The structure also uses long bamboo poles. The height varies from 1.8 to more than 3m.
Women decorate the tower with fresh flowers such as yellow khoon (golden shower tree), pink fuengfah (paper flowers), white dok rak (crown flowers) and other vividly coloured blossoms. Red flowers are not featured because locals associate the colour with blood and violence.
Each corner of the giant flower tower is also decorated with woven coconut leaves and bells to make a jingling sound. The tower is then placed on a bamboo pallet for four people to carry.
At around 7pm, locals join a procession carrying ton dokmai to Wat Sri Pho Chai Sang Pha. Before they start, they light candles inside the tower to illuminate it. The parade is led by musicians playing Isan-style music on khaen (a type of mouth organ), kong hang (long drum), gong and cymbals.
Those carrying the flower towers dance and shake the platform to the left and right to make it jingle. They carry the ton dokmai around the temple's ordination hall for three rounds before placing them in front of the hall until morning. The procession ends at around 9pm.
The community replaces the flowers with fresh ones and organises merit-making processions on two more occasions, on the evening of Wan Phra (Uposatha Day). This month Wan Phra will fall on April 19 and 27.
The Ban Ahi community in Loei's Tha Li district holds a similar procession on April 16.
For more information, call the Tourism Authority of Thailand office in Loei at 042-812-812 or the TAT call centre at 1672.
