The Mahayana Buddhist Festival of the Monks in the Annam Nikaya (Wat Thawon)

¾ Noblest Spirits Farewell

This is the last ceremony of the nine days of the festival. The ceremony takes place around midnight on the ninth day of the ninth moon. The participants pray and chant the text to pay homage and to invite the Kio Ong Huk Chow to return to heaven. They offer paper dresses and vegetarian food to the deities, and the food finally will be distributed among the participants, who perform the farewell as the last vegetarian meal. After this ceremony the participants can eat meat again.

Most of the activities in the festival are based on praying, reciting, chanting, benefaction and preaching. There are a few supernatural details presented in the festival such as the oracle and the medium of Tai Ong Siang Sue (Da Feng).

Although the festival is basically organized by the laity, it is always in connection with the essential parts of Mahayana Buddhism, the Sutras, temples and Buddhist monks. In addition to the chanting, the festival is always accompanied by a Chinese percussion group and an ensemble with melodic instruments. All the available resources are used to create a spiritual atmosphere and to achieve the purpose of the festival: to emphasize the benefits of the way of Buddha.

5.6.2 The Mahayana Buddhist Festival of the Monks in the Annam Nikaya (Wat

¾ The Daily Activities

There are daily activities scheduled for the Buddhist monks and the participants through the nine days of the festival. The activities shown below apply to the Thetsakan kin che held at Wat Thawon, SongKhla, 21-30 October 2006.

o 05.30 Buddhist monks chant the morning text o 06.30 Breakfast

o 08.30 Buddhist monks chanting prayer

o 10.00 Buddhist monks offer food to worship the Three Gems o 12.00 Lunch

o 14.00 Buddhist monks chanting prayers.

o 16.00 Buddhist monks chant the evening text and offer food for the spirits

o 17.00 Evening meal

o 18.30 Walking with lighted candles around the temple ceremony, worship of Kio Ong Huk Chow and blessing ceremony

o 21.00 Snack

The temple offers free vegetarian food for everybody at lunch every day.

¾ Worshiping the Nine Stars to Dispel Misfortune

This ceremony is particular to the festival of the Annam nikaya. As has been explained, “The Nine Planets in the Thetsakan kin che in the Annam Nikaya”, normally follows the New Year festival. But the purpose of this ceremony is to dispel misfortune, which is also the most conspicuous activity of the Thetsakan kin che. The way to dispel misfortune is lighting candles according to the number of one’s star, burning a written name with the details of the star and praying and chanting. The difference between this procedure and those of the other two variants is mainly that here the “Dispelling Misfortune”

ceremony happens without burning one’s self-effigy and crossing the bridge.

In contrary, the ceremony pays attention to the person’s zodiac sign and to the nine stars. Even though the proceedings of this ceremony are different, the worship of the nine stars by praying the Pak Tao Sutra and asking them for protection is always part of it. The ceremony is executed every third, sixth and ninth day of the ninth moon.

¾ Floating Flower Vessel

The ceremony is addressed to the aimless spirits in the water, to invite them to come to the temple for the thingkrachat ceremony on the next day to get the benefaction of the people. Therefore this ceremony has to be performed one day before the ceremony of charity.

¾ Leaving the Basket for Charity Ceremony

To explain the meaning of this ceremony it requires the use of the Thai word for it. The usual name in Thai is thingkrachat, the literal meaning of which is

“leaving the basket”. Thing is “to leave” or “to throw away”, and krachat is

“basket”. The act of leaving or throwing away the basket in this case means giving something to everyone, like presenting a gift dedicated to the community as a whole. Therefore the purpose of the ceremony is to benefit everyone, which includes unspecified spirits.

It is a great ceremony and is believed to have miraculous power. It is performed on the eighth day of the ninth moon. In the ceremony, a large image of Tai Sue Ia is set up, who is the chief of the spirits in general belief; in the Buddhist tradition, Tai Sue Ia is an incarnation of Avalokitesavara Bodhisattva.

During the ceremony the monks will pray and chant while performing hand gestures (mudra). Given by donors, there are many objects of everyday life on the altar, such as consumer goods, arranged as an offering for the spirits. The people believe that many spirits coming to join in the ceremony to receive the great outpouring of charity. After that, all the consumer goods will be distributed to the participants.

¾ Noblest Spirits Farewell

The last ceremony is for inviting the Kio Ong Huk Chow to return to heaven.

The procession moves from the temple to the beach to begin the ceremony around midnight. Buddhist monks lead the ceremony, the purpose of which is presenting the Buddhist meaning, and to indicate the character of benefaction in Buddhism. They do not use characteristics of performing via the supernatural such as in the festival held in Phuket based on Taoist belief.