Lent day rites lend colour It rained hard the night before the Buddhist Lent Day or Wan Khao Phansa which took place last week. Old folks in Ubon Ratchathani believe it was a good omen for the rain would wash away all dirt collecting on the candles specially carved for the occasion. "I'm so proud of the festival. I attend the event every year. Some years back I myself used to walk in the parade," said 65-year-old Temchai Tanadtang as she watched the procession from sidelines. The festival in which beewax candles are paraded dates to the reign of King Rama V. Traditionally, people presented candles to monks because there was no electricity. Candles were their only source of light during the rainy season when monks were confined to temples. The candles offered were small, neatly tied in a bunch. Instead of donating plain candles, the province instituted a competition in which local communities were encouraged to exercise creativity by carving candles into various shapes depicting episodes from the life of Lord Buddha, just as we see today. "Other than carving, there's another pattern making technique called Tien Tid Pim. And Ubon Ratchathani is the only place in Thailand where candles are decorated this way," said Sompan Poonphol, who has been doing it for 20 years. This technique needs beewax as raw material, which he bought from Laos. Sompan boils the beewax until it becomes viscous and then lets it stiffen. He then scrapes away the dirty part and cuts the congealed wax into thin slices. The slices are put in hot water. The resulting mixture is gelatinous and highly malleable, ready for moulding into the desired pattern. The mould is essentially a stone block carved with the required pattern. The mixture is placed on the block and pressed. It is then scraped and applied to statues made from plaster of Paris and coconut fibre in order to keep the weight light. Excess wax is subsequently removed, followed by a final polishing to yield specimen that really look the part. The entire process is labour intensive and the use of coir or coconut fibre helps keep costs low, while giving the makers the liberty to mould or shape the desired figure with relative ease. It took the local Wat Si Pradu temple 50 volunteers, two months and nearly 300,000 baht to put together its masterpiece, even though the award for the winning specimen was just 100,000 baht. A full set, once completed, is about 10 metres long, four metres high mounted on a motorless carriage the size of a six-wheel truck. This year 69 works were on show. The procession was joined by thousands of people as it passed through Muang District of the province. At the end of the festival the beewax was removed, the sculptures taken off and saved for next year. The winner of the competition, for his part, is obliged to reassemble his specimen and parade it over a four-kilometre loop on lent day next year. "It is a tradition which has been passed down the generation," said Supol Jungkajit. "We want to preserve it because Ubon organises the biggest carved candle festival in Thailand."
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