4/7/2003 - New House

Hi Everyone -

We are getting pretty close to the end of our time here in Thailand. As that time approaches we are having more opportunities to visit various cultural celebrations. One of those is a house warming party. In many ways this seems familiar to a similar party in America as the owners of a new house will invite all of their friends and neighbors over for a party. However, as with weddings and funerals, there's a lot more to it than that. To start with, the hosts must consult with the village shaman to find an "auspicious" day to have the celebration. The day of the celebration, as with a wedding, is an all-day affair. And, as with all other Thai celebrations, you must arrange for a massive stereo to blast your party throughout the neighborhood.

In the case of the house warming party that we attended, it was in a Khmer-speaking village with its own special traditions. The new owners put a centerpiece (right) with baskets of bananas, various forms of rice and other foods in an empty room upstairs. We asked about the significance of these things and we were told "Khmer tradition." We tried to get further explanation, but failed. The owners of the house sit in front of the centerpiece and are the recipients of many of the same traditions as in a wedding - people come and tie strings around their wrists, people give them money, and eventually everyone throws rice.

No ceremony is complete without Buddhist monks. The Buddhist part of the party starts with placing a spirit house on the northeast corner of the property outside the house. (See picture below, on left). This tradition holds more significance for some than others. Some believe that the spirits of past generations need a resting place, and one should make offerings to their spirit house often. Others believe having a house for the spirits will keep ghosts out of their house. Still others just go along with the cultural tradition without really believing in it. Businesses in Thailand, like hotels and shopping malls, have massive spirit houses, and must upgrade the spirit house every time the building is upgraded. A ceremonial string is tied to the spirit house and strung around the new house, and then threaded through a window or door and attached to a Buddha figure on the altar location arranged inside the house. It is here that monks will come and sit to chant blessings for the house (holding the string, as you can see here, to confer the blessings to the whole place). After chanting, and giving a lot of food to the monks, everyone sits down and has breakfast.

From here the house warming continues mostly as a place for people to gather and socialize while preparations are made for the party in the evening. As with the evening party at the wedding, tables are arranged in front of a stage where music and various entertainment takes place. A generic 8 course banquet will be presented for the guests and the owners will make the rounds to have photos taken with all of their guests.

Supon also took us to her village's temple - she has told us stories about going there to watch movies when she was growing up. In the middle of a poor farmer village was one of the prettier temples we have seen in Thailand, it was obvious that the villagers take a lot of pride in their temple. The temple was covered in colorful pieces of glass (which sparkle in the sunlight), and next to the main temple was a large chedi (bell-shaped monument) that was quite elaborate. You could go up inside the chedi to a lookout at the top, which was a bit unusual as far as chedis go, and made it all the more interesting. The inside of the chedi had been completely covered in murals of stories from the life of Buddha - all very colorfully painted by an artist from Cambodia.

Reminder: Supon is the teacher we wrote about who has been accepted with AFS to go as an exchange teacher to America. We are very excited for her. If you want to see more about Supon, or see any of our old email updates, or see other pictures of our time in Thailand, we've finally got our website running up to date at: http://www.geocities.com/dennyandlisa

We will finish as Peace Corps Volunteers the 30th of April, and then travel for a couple of weeks with Lisa's friend. The recent SARS scare has thrown our China plans up in the air, but we are definitely still going to Europe before heading back to the US. We'll try to keep you updated as we travel.

Denny & Lisa