When the three-month-long Buddhist lent comes to an end on Oct 23, it will usher in the annual krathin season during which people visit temples and make merit by presenting robes to monks.

Performing Krathin Religious Rites is actually quite convenient these days because you can buy the robes at shops, but it wasn't so easy in the old days when they had to be hand-made. Making them was part and parcel of an elaborate rite called chunla krathin that brought together entire communities a day before the end of the lent to make saffron robes from cotton planted specifically for this rite. In other words, it used to be a collective effort.

One place where this tradition is still very much in fashion - because the people regard it as one of the highest forms of merit-making - is Wat Yang Luang in Mae Chaem district of Chiang Mai famous for its Lanna architecture, and I was witness to it last year.

The Ceremony began at dusk with harvest of cotton from a field behind the Temple. The crop had been planted a few months earlier and the plot marked out by bamboo fencing.

Earlier that day Villagers in the vicinity, mostly elderly people, had decorated the path from the temple's entrance leading to the viharn, the Main Chapel, with local handicrafts and figures of animals, including crocodile, made from coconut leaves.

The harvest began with young girls dressed like angels, in whites, collecting cotton bolls in baskets they carried. They were followed by others who took turns through the night doing their bits for the ceremony.

The bolls were put through a grinder to separate seeds from fibre, which was then beaten using a wooden contraption with elastic chords until it turned to white fluff. The fluff was scooped and rolled around cylindrical sticks about arm's length, spun spun into yarn and woven to form cloth.

"Each of us bring our own equipment," said Cheun, in her 80s, referring to eight weaving machines operating at full steam on the temple ground and, like her neighbours, felt kind of blessed to be able to contribute to this ceremony the temple hosts once every few years.

By now it was midnight and the elderly began retiring to quiet corners to grab some rest. They slept in the temple sala on its matted floor with blankets for cover from wind and insects.

But others continued to work, myself included and some visitors who had decided to join in the fun, weaving and stitching until we had the robe material, about two metres in length, at which point the women took leave. From now on it was all about dyeing, a men's job.

Near the stairway leading to the main chapel, elderly villagers tended a stove on which sat a huge vat filled with water and barks of jack fruit tree. When the water had taken on a saffron tinge the cloth, as yet still white, was immersed into the vat and after a while checked for colour. The process was repeated until colouring was uniform. Then it was rinsed and left to dry.

On the same stove they then cooked a traditional dessert called krayasart (crunchy caramelised rice cake with sesame seeds and peanuts). By now, it was two hours past midnight and the chefs knew they would better hurry. They stirred ingredients in the cooking pan constantly to speed up the process and make sure the dessert would be ready in time for the ceremony due to begin in the next few hours.

Shortly afterwards, the crowing of roosters announced the dawn of a new day and the village elders who had repaired to the sala earlier that night woke up with a start and set about preparing breakfast. About the same time the villagers began their march to the temple, many carrying snacks and savoury which they shared with visitors and invited them to a breakfast of sticky rice and nam prik , a chilly dip eaten with fresh vegetables.

The Ceremony Began at eight o'clock. The villagers arrived in a procession after walking the rough margins of green paddies. With them they carried alms and the robe. Walking the paddies proved difficult, particularly for women in traditional pha thung wrap-arounds and high-heeled shoes. And although some of them came caked in mud and dirt, it didn't dampen their spirits.

At the temple they were greeted by students performing classical dances. Entering the compound they were showered with petals, after which they marched in a circle around the main chapel three times before finally presenting the robe they had woven the previous night to the abbot.

Article Source : www.bangkokpost.com