งานประเพณีอุ้มพระดำน้ำ

Uhm Phra Dum Nam Phetchabun

                Today I am going to take you to the lower north region of Thailand.
       The province that I am referring to is Phetchabun province.

                Phetchabun has both the natural beauty destination and the well – know festival.

                Phetchabun has a very important festival known as “ Uhm Phra Dum Nam ” festival.

                This is called Dive the Buddha Image in to the water Festival.

                This Festival will be the highlight of today’s program and this will be. Where I will be taking you.

                But before we go anywhere Let us get familiar with the province and its history and back ground.

                                Sweet tamarin City ,

                                Nam Nao National Park ,

                                Sri Thep Ancient City ,

                                Khao Kho Commemoration,

                                And King Khun Pha Muang City .

Such is slogan of Phetchabun Province .

                Phetchabun is considered to be a province in the lower northern region of Thailand.

                It is stuated between the northern and central region.

                From historical evidenced it is believe that Phetchabun was established by the two Kingdoms – namely The Sukhothai Kingdom and the Ayutthaya period of King Narai the great.

                Initially the province was called “ Phe-cha-buth ” as “ Phuenchapura ”.

                Which means the city that is plenty of crops. The reason for being given such name is because the province is very rich and fertile and full of natural resources.

                In additaion a large river called the “ PhaSak River ” flows through the area.

                The PhaSak River is the origin of many important civilizations of the province.

                Due to this Particular reason explains. Why the province is a very fertile one.

                With that particular reason came the name of Phetchabun up to this very day.

                Phetchabun is consider to be a passing through province meaning that it is the province that you have to pass before going up north coming down to the central region.

                Due to this nature there are many routes in getting to Phetchabun. You can either take the car catch the coach or for those who do not have much time you can take the plane.

                If you were coming by car you can use Highway Road Number 1 to Saraburi Province.

                Then u-turn on to Highway Number 21 passing through Chai Badarn District.

                Sri Thep district until you reach the city of Phetchabun . The whole route is about 346 kilometers. For those of you who prefer taking the coach.

                You need to use the Northern Bus terminal 2. The terminal is open everyday.

                For further information and details contact 0-2936-2852-6.

                Phetchabun Province has close relationship with the river since historical times.

                The people in the province relate to the river very much. Such closeness is clearly reflected in the festival of the province.

                This is Dive the Buddha image in the river festival. I have referred to earlier on in the program.

                This festival is carried out right in the middle of the Pha Sak River.

                But before we go and withness these   festival let us look into the history and background of this festival.

                The history of this festival believed to happen about 400 years ago.

                Legend has it that around 400 years ago a group of villager went to out to catch fish in the Pha Sak River.

                While they were fishing they saw a Buddha image floating along   the river.

                Since the image was rather heavy. It was struggling to float.

                The villagers saw that and decided to take the image and house it at Traiphum Temple.

                The Traiphum Temple is considered to be a very old temple that have been with.

                Phetchabun Province since the olden days.

                Not long after that the Buddha image disappeared from the temple.

                Not long after that the Buddha image and several groups of villagers decided to go and find the image.

                In the end a group of villager found the image in the Pha Sak River near the “ Wand Makham Fab ” area.

                Actually, this particular area was where the image was discovered in the first place.

                The local people decided to bring the Buddha image back to be housed at the Traiphum Temple once again.

                The villagers and the local people decided to name the image as

                “ Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha ”.

                It was from the period on came the festival of “ Dive the Buddha image into the river ”.

                So every year during “ Sart Thai Day ” which is on the 15^th moon of the 10^th lunar month.

                This particular festival will take place.

                It was on this day that the Buddha image disappear from the temple.

                This is how the legends and festival came to be about and is still carry out till today.

                Style in the meditation position.

                The image is made out of gold with the front dimension of 13 inches in width and 18 inches in height.

                At present the image is house at Traiphum Temple located at Phetcharat Road. Muang District Phetchabun Province .

                What you have just heard was the history of the “ Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha ”. and “ Dive the Buddha image into the river festival ”.

                This is the only festival in the world. Such festival reflects the proudness of the unchanging way of life of the people and the local wisdom.

                The Dive the Buddha image into the River Festival in held during September or October.

                This Festival is organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Phetchabun Province.

                This year’s festival is unlike and other years. The addition is that there are more fun and tourists to enjoy.

                The first activity   that I am going to take you to see is deities celebration ceremony.

                This ceremony is held at Traiphum Temple let us go and see how important.

                This ceremony os Let’s go

                Deities celebration ceremony is considered to be one of the very scared ceremony.

                In addition to the Dive the Buddha image into the river ceremony.

                The farmer ceremony is held with the purpose of paying homage and respect to the spints and deities that are gurading the province.

                The latter ceremony is for the purpose of making predictions as to predict.

                Predict the prospect of the province.

                This is predicted by looking at in which direction “ Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha ” face once it is dive into the river.

                The person who would have the honor in holding the Buddha image is usually the head of the province or those who have spiritual blessings.

                Such was the idea in the olden days.

                As for nowsday the person who perform this ceremony is the governor of the province.

                This reason being the governor is the person who looks after the well being of the people in the province.

                As for the year the prediction that was obtaines was that the “ Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha ” faced the South three times and faced the North three times. The person holding the Buddha image has to pray to the spirits and deities in order to ask for pernission and gives respects.

                As I have said eartier that this festival is a very old festival that have been carried out for hundreds of years. This festival actually reflects the cleverness of our ancestors in guiding the way of life of the people and how to plan our lives.

                If that leaves you with doubt with my mentioned statement then let us go and listen to the explanations together.

                The Dive the Buddha image into the River Festival is considered to be a very sacred    ritual and ceremony. But apart from this aspect.

                There is the conponet of the local wisdom involved as well. For example.

                For example, the head of the province or the governor would have to be involved in the ceremony that is he have to be the person who carry the Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha to the river.

                As this stage both the governor and the Buddha image would dive into the river together.

                I think at this point lies the local wisdom of our ancestors.

                The point is that the governor would have to keep the river clean and pay attention to its environment since he would not dive into mucky and dirty water.

                Thus, the solution would be to try to keep the river clean.

                I think this is an indirect way of telling the governor to keep the river clean.

                Since we know that in the olden days before the political reform it was not possible to tell the governor what to do.

                Therefore since the governor would be the one going to the river.

                He would try to keep the river as clean as possible. Apart from that aspect there ate several catches to this festival.

                For example, people often ask why do they need to dive in the water 6 times and why dive only in the north and south directions.

The    reason for the latter is rather simple during the old days there were roads. The only means of transportantion is through the waterways.

The Pha Sak River has only two directions the upper stream facing north and the lower stream facing south.

In such direction the Buddha has to take three dives which can be explained as follows the three dives signify   the Lord Buddha the Dhamma ( The teaching of Lord Buddha ) and the monks.

Thus three dives in each direction would means six dives attogether.

This is the wisdom that is inserted in the concept of this festival.

This reflects the close bonding of the people their ways of life and the river.

Looking from another perspective one can say that this festival can create.

The faith and unity of the people in the province to work togerther to preserve the river to be in a environmentally sound conditions apart from this mentioned reason.

There are still something else that are embedded this festival.

There are also other festivals following along this idea as well.

Right after this ceremony we will go and see what other festivals follow this wisdom.

After the ceremony, the Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha carried around the province right up to the provincial hall.

It is here at the provincial hall that the people will have a chance to go and pay respect to the Buddha image.

After the deities celebration ceremony is overed the next activity of this festival is to parade the Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha throughout the roads in the inner city.

As for this year, the parade is held in the evening.

The working committee of the festival is then placed the Buddha image onto beautifully decorated flower cart and paraded all around the area of the Phetchabun Municipality.

Apart from this decorated car where the image is placed there are other decorated cars joining in the parade   in the paraded the governor and four other senior officers of the province whom took part in diving the Buddha image into the river are all dressed in the traditional   costumes are paraded throughout the town.

These officials are the one leading the parade. In addition there are other local decorated car joining in the parade.

The parties involve in the parade include those of province officials students.

Including the private sector and the general public.

It was during this festival that all parties and the people of Phetchabun come together to add colors can excitement to the parade and festival.

There are many people from all walks of life taking part in the parade both near and far.

In addition many tourists near and far came to witness and experience this festival as well.

Once the parade has reached the provincial   hall the governor would take the Buddha image from the decorated car to be placed at the provincial hall.

The Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha is the Buddha image that have been with Phetchabun    provinces for along time.

The people have had long and close connection with the Buddha image since the image represents Phetchabun province as a whole.

Many of the local people would come and pray to the image since they believe that by doing such action would bring happiness and prosperity to their lives.

What we have just witness is the   activities in the first day of the festival.

The next day will be the official opening of the Dive The Buddha image into the River festival. In addition there will be the spectacular light and sound show.

Next, I am going to take you to see the official ceremony of the Dive the Buddha image into the river festival as well as go and see the light and sound show call “ The Greatness of Phuechapura. ”

This show is about the history and legend of the Festival that is depicted throughout the whole go minutes.

The light and sound show about diving the Buddha image into the River Festival has began since 1998.

The show was originally the concept from Rajchabath Phetchabun Institute. As for this year the show is called “ The Greatness of Phuechapura.”

Most of the performers are the teachers lecturers student and including the army.

All are activity   involved in the show.

The show portrays the historical events of the festival since the olden days until the present days.

Throughout the whole one and a half hour of the show I guarantee that you will not be able to move anywhere.

The show is very interesting exciting as well as educational. There are laughters and    appalued all throughout the show.

The uniqueness of the show lies in the fact that the show depicts the history of the festival since the early days right up to the present.

Everything in the show have been portrayed right to every details and reality.

The credits must be given to the producers and performers of the show.

Now we are going to look at the river parade and have a feel of what its like.

There are many activities happening in the festival apart from the fully decorated lighing parade there in another interesting aspect.

Which is the boats parade in the Pha Sak River ?

The   boats are fully decorated with transport the Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha along the river to the Wang Makham Fab area in front of the Bold Chana Marn Temple. This is the particular site where.

The Phra Buddha Maha Thammacha was   discovered in the beginning.

The boats parade starts early in the morning where by Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha was placed on the barge.

The barge has been fully decorated and would sail along the Pha Sak River.

The barge starts from the pies in front of Triphum Temple and stop at Wang Makham Fab area where the diving ceremony is to be held.

The ceremony is carried out in front of the Botd Chana Marn Temple situated in the middle of the Pha Sak River the place where this particular Buddha image was discovered.

Once the barge reach the Wang Makham Fab area the dive of the Buddha image into the river begins.

The head of province , the governor allowed by high by rank officials of the province would all go into the   river in order to prepare themselves for the ceremony.

In the ceremony, the governor would carry the Buddha image at the chest level facing south before the prediction begins.

The first dive will follow after the first wish is made. There will be altogether six wishes throughout the ceremony three of the wishes are made in the south direction and three others in the north directions. Each of the wishes would go as follows.

The first wish : With the power rested in Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha lease provide prosperity to   Buddhism and all the faithful Buddhist followers.

Many all the good deeds and fortune happen to the people of Phetchabun.

The second wish : Many it rains in Phetchabun may the rainy season be a prosperous one so to give rise to abundant fruits and crops.

The third wish : Many the people be prosperous with all the abundant natural resources and many they not be affected by any danger or natural disaster of any kind any many peace and prosperity dwell in the province of Phetchabun.

The fourth wish : Many the trades commerce industries prosper. Bringing wealth and economic stability to the people of Phetchabun.

The fifth wish : Many there be access to forms of transportation communications and infrastructure for the convenience and well being of the people of Phetchabun Province.

The last and sixth wish : May all the people of Phetchabun be united on all fronts diligent and dedicated.

Unite and help one another and be giving to one another according to the law of the land and prosperity of the province.

May everyone in Phetchabun joins hand and work together cooperatively for the wealth and prosperity of the province.

Once the ceremony is completed flowers sweets fruits of Thai desserts are thrown into the river for they believe that by throwing these items would bring them blessings and prosperity.

After the ceremony the people would compete to take fruits or Thai desserts from the river.

The people around the area will eat these food for they believe that by obtaining them would gives blessings and bring prosperity to their lives.

According to its original tradition this festival is usually held on the “ Sart Thai.”

The villagers would prepare the Krayasart ( This is a Thai desserts like nougat made of peanuts sugars and sesame seeds.) and “ Sweet rice. ”

Another Thai dessert made out of sticky rice banana and coconut milk all wrap in banana leaves. So that they can eat them during the day. So the villagers would share the food that they prepared among themselves   as well. During the evening these is the Delicious Food Festival in Phetchabun.

“ The Delicious Food Festival ” is the festival where more than be restaurants come to offer their specialties and the taste of their food.

These stores offer local food especially those commonly popular in Phetchabun but there are also other international food stands.

These food stands are located on both sides of the roads right up to the provincial hall area.

There are so many tourists as well as the local people enjoying this delightful festival buying and trying the various wonderful dishes.

This particular food festival is actually and added feature to the Dive the Buddha image into the River Festival.

The main objective of both festivals is to promote tourism in Phetchabun Province.

On the olden days the Dive the Buddha image into the River Festival is only known among those living along the Pha Sak River basin. It was only later that other activities were added to the festival but most of the main core activities remains the same.

The end result is to encourage people especially the local people to be more award and take pride in their hometown in order to promote their province as the tourists destination.

We will see another interesting activity of the festival which is boat racing against the current competition. I will be taking you to another interesting activities in this festival.

This is boat racing against the current competition guarantee you that this activity is very rared are not seen anywhere else in Thailand.

This is because there is no competition that compete is rowing boats against the currents.

Let join me and see how much fun this activity has to offer.

This boat racing competition is held every year around the Traiphum Temple’s pier.

There are around 20 local boats competition in the race.

The rowers are those in the province and those in the vicinity area.

Boat racing in the   manner is consider to be a very tough event since it is very difficult to row against the current since the current during this period of time is very strong and heavy.

Not to mention the fact that there are of curves and bends and bridges pose as obstacle to the event.

Throughout the event one can hear the loud cheering of the different teams.

It is these cheering the gave each team the boost and supports.

The main aim to each of these team it to take their pass the obstacles and the finish line as fast as they can no matter what the results may be the thing that each of these teams will take back home with them is the network of friendship that the competition has created.

So how did you enjoy that ?

Don’t you think the whole event was fun and enjoyable ? Remember an event or festival such as this can not be found anywhere else it is only in Phetchabun it is sad to tell you that the annual festival of Phetchabun is towards the end.

But before we say goodbye would like to leave you to one last event which is to return the Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha image back to the Traiphum Temple.

Once the Dive the Buddha image into the River Festival is towards its last days.

The governor of the province will return the Phra Buddha Maha Thammaracha image back to Traiphum Temple.

This particular image is very sacred to the people of Phetchabun and is considered to be the image that truly belongs to Phetchabun province.

The Diving the Buddha image into the River Festival is considered to be a very authentic festival

A festival that can not be found in other province of the country but only in Thailand.

The festival reflects both the culture and radiation of the people as well as the province.

Most important of all the festival reflects the local wisdom of our ancestors.

The people have the firm believe that after the ceremony of diving the Buddha image into the River is performed. There will be seasonal rainfalls and no dought will occur throughout the year and no natural disasters of and kinds.

All in all it means that there will be abundant fruits and crops for the people of the province to yield.