I was very excited since the moment I wake up in the morning, as this is the day I can get to see Oh's parents in action at work. According to Oh, his parents are musicians who plays music for various occasions. I was initially rather surprised by his words, as his mother looked just like a typical hosewife while his father don't quite look like a musician to me. However, when I watched a video of his brother's ordination (as a monk), I was convinced. In the video, Oh's parents, together with their band, were touring down the streets while playing music in the blazing heat of the day, with the vehicle carrying Oh's brother paraded along behind. The fellow folks of the same village trailed behind (or was it in front; I couldn't really tell from the video), dancing along with the music.
We left the household in the evening, preparing to leave for a Wat (Thai temple) where Oh's parents were supposed to perform for the night. The setup of the musical ensemble is simple; 2 keyboards, 1 bass guitar, 1 saxaphone, 1 drum set and 1 percussion keyboard. Oh's father, together with one or 2 other relatives helped out with the vocals (I was told that his entire family and extended family were musically-trained since young).
My mood was dampened when it started to rain halfway through our journey to the temple. It didn't seemed like a good omen, as that would mean less people would be willing to come out of their homes to the temple. I was wrong, however. At around 7pm, people started streaming into the temple, where there was already some games and food stalls in operation at the entrance. Somehow it reminded me of temple festivals in Lorong Koo Chye Temple near my house, but this was not quite the same as I soon found out, as people actually took part in the celebration, instead of being passive spectators. As the band played song after song, people started dancing along to the music. This was what the Thais called it "Ram Wong" (circle dance, since the people were actually dancing around around in circles). This was a rather unique experience, as people of all ages were actually dancing together on the same ground. What's more, all these were actually happening inside a temple! This was something I had never expected, as I thought such activities do not quite blend in well with the sombre atmosphere of typical Thai temples. But I guess this is the unique side of Thai Buddhism, and how Buddhism formed the core essence of typical Thai Buddhist culture.
Throughout the night, I enjoyed myself very much, and though I never knew how to dance like these Thais, I soon blended in well with them. However, I did get a bit embaressed during certain points of time when the emcees kept stressing that there was a Singaporean among the crowd (that was me, of course, and Oh even wanted to raise my arm to expose my identity to the rest of the people there). Of course I did not want to do that, for I wanted to keep as low-profile as possible. Luckily for me, the emcee did not know my name, and Oh's parents couldn't help much, so I was "safe from harm"! But towards the end of the celebration, my identity was still exposed when people started talking to me excitedly, and I had to turn to Oh for help as I couldn't understand what they were trying to say. Oh told them I am actually Chinese and do not know what they were actually talking. This was the first time I got so much attention in the presence of the locals, and to be honest, I wasn't quite used to it.
The temple celebration ended at around 12 midnight, and after helping ourselves to some porridge, we packed up and left the temple grounds. It was indeed a very unforgetable experience!
We left the household in the evening, preparing to leave for a Wat (Thai temple) where Oh's parents were supposed to perform for the night. The setup of the musical ensemble is simple; 2 keyboards, 1 bass guitar, 1 saxaphone, 1 drum set and 1 percussion keyboard. Oh's father, together with one or 2 other relatives helped out with the vocals (I was told that his entire family and extended family were musically-trained since young).
My mood was dampened when it started to rain halfway through our journey to the temple. It didn't seemed like a good omen, as that would mean less people would be willing to come out of their homes to the temple. I was wrong, however. At around 7pm, people started streaming into the temple, where there was already some games and food stalls in operation at the entrance. Somehow it reminded me of temple festivals in Lorong Koo Chye Temple near my house, but this was not quite the same as I soon found out, as people actually took part in the celebration, instead of being passive spectators. As the band played song after song, people started dancing along to the music. This was what the Thais called it "Ram Wong" (circle dance, since the people were actually dancing around around in circles). This was a rather unique experience, as people of all ages were actually dancing together on the same ground. What's more, all these were actually happening inside a temple! This was something I had never expected, as I thought such activities do not quite blend in well with the sombre atmosphere of typical Thai temples. But I guess this is the unique side of Thai Buddhism, and how Buddhism formed the core essence of typical Thai Buddhist culture.
Throughout the night, I enjoyed myself very much, and though I never knew how to dance like these Thais, I soon blended in well with them. However, I did get a bit embaressed during certain points of time when the emcees kept stressing that there was a Singaporean among the crowd (that was me, of course, and Oh even wanted to raise my arm to expose my identity to the rest of the people there). Of course I did not want to do that, for I wanted to keep as low-profile as possible. Luckily for me, the emcee did not know my name, and Oh's parents couldn't help much, so I was "safe from harm"! But towards the end of the celebration, my identity was still exposed when people started talking to me excitedly, and I had to turn to Oh for help as I couldn't understand what they were trying to say. Oh told them I am actually Chinese and do not know what they were actually talking. This was the first time I got so much attention in the presence of the locals, and to be honest, I wasn't quite used to it.The temple celebration ended at around 12 midnight, and after helping ourselves to some porridge, we packed up and left the temple grounds. It was indeed a very unforgetable experience!
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