Saturday 12 February 2011

17 September 2001

Walked to an elephant camp and rode the elephants to a nearby village, the ride was very uncomfortable.

Once in our sleeping hut at the new village we could hear what sounded like kareoke from outside but this turned out to be some kind of procession with a radio as well as drums, cymbals, gongs and dancers and two women carrying a decorated float. The procession circled a building several times before stopping at the door where more people appeared to join the dancing. This was apparently a Buddhist celebration to mark the end of the rainy season when monks are expected not to leave the temple for three months.


A little later a group of village girls did a formal dance before inviting the tour group to join them.
Then we were invited to go with another group of villagers to what was described as an Animist spirit house. This was a small stilthouse very hot inside where men in masks danced to drumming to celebrate the new moon.

No comments:

Post a Comment