Various state agencies along with the private sector and communities from Muang Saensuk municipality and from all over Chon Buri created the sculptures in the shapes of pagodas for a contest that will be judged in various categories on Monday.

Besides the sand sculpture contest and exuberant water throwing, the event at Khao Lam and along the beachside road also featured a water ritual for people seeking blessings from the elderly, many cultural shows, booths offering demonstrations of Thai traditional sweet cooking and other cultural activities.

Unlike the rest of country, which celebrates Songkran with water wars from April 13 to 15, Chon Buri province celebrates Wan Lai, or “the day that flows”, Festival between April 16 and 20 with different towns and districts celebrating different days.

The beachside town of Bang Saen saw teams of artists moulding sand into attractive shapes over 20 hours before the contest took place as part of the Wan Lai Festival.

The tradition stems from the Thai traditional belief that people should take sand to local temples during the New Year and build pagoda-shaped sculptures to return the soil or sand that they had unwittingly removed from the temple grounds with their feet during the previous year.