We had our first annual Cultural Fair last week. Since we not only have Thai students, but also many students from the Hill-tribes. They kicked off the Fair with a Parade down the main street, to help publicize.
These ladies are in traditional Thai costume.
Their signs say: Soon Luuk Ying, Chiang Kong (I can read Thai!) (The Girls' School at Chiang Kong).
These boys from Half Day School helped build a lot of the gazebos and decorate and play the drums for the Cultural fair.
A pretty silver hair piece of one of the students in traditional Thai costume.
Traditional Thai fingernail/finger extensions. I think they're supposed to be especially pretty and accentuate the hand movements when dancing.
Traditional Akha garb. They usually sew and embroider their own traditional outfit.
A very detailed detail of the back of a jacket.
A funny truck that went by during the parade. It was probably going the 100 meters down the road into Burma and wanted to really fill it to the max.
Because they moved two big Buddha statues into the ground floor of the school/dormitory building for the Cultural Fair, all 30 some students had to sleep in the one roomed Kindergarten Building. Here's just one side of the 3 rows of shoes out side the Kindergarten. In Buddhist belief it is offensive to walk above a Buddha statue or monk.
In full swing!
Okay, this whole Cultural Fair was kinda confusing to me. When I heard cultural fair- I was thinking booths and dioramas, food tastings, and dancing lots of adults and kids coming from the community. But....it wasn't quite like that.
It lasted 24 hours and the high point was ...I'm actually not quite sure...I think the highlight was staying up all night and meditating with the monks.
Or maybe it was falling asleep and getting blessed because you were listening to the monks praying. Needless to say being the light sleeper that I am, and an Octoleptic (always sleeping eight hours a night or else I revert to my infant self-being groggy and cranky the whole day), I left around 10 to sleep in my own bed in a nice and quite dark room.
My favorite part of the Fair was looking at the old books and manuscripts that were on display, borrowed from Wats in the area. I thought the writing in this one was especially pretty, and I liked the flower drawings at the bottom.
Then I turned a few pages and found this little tribute to the year 1984-it must have some Buddhist symbolism, or maybe it was a tribute to George Orwell's book, or maybe to the year I started Kindergarten. Either way, the typography was just smashing.
I don't remember what was inside this composition book, the cover was so explosive I didn't get any farther. I guess monks like rockets from the 50s.
Added bonus-This Gazebo was built just outside the school building to make some snacks for the monks. This is a traditional Indian snack with peanuts caramel and rice and coconut, but the best thing about the snack fed to the monks is that only virgins and help prepare it. How crazy right?
4 comments:
I love the silver hair piece and the decorated jackets, so pretty! does it take a long time for the girls to embroider the jackets??? and i like the type on the 1984 page too!
Hey sis, such an active commenter, i love it. Ya i think it would take about 72 hours to embroider the jacket. Its comparable to crosstitching.
Yay, isnt it funny to imagine a monk sitting and practicing his calligraphy then he gets bored and does a doodle of 1984. heh.
Hmmm, I think I'd have to skip that cultural fair. But not the snacks for the monks, mmmmm.
I think the writing is really pretty in that book. The 1984 thing is funny!
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