The Mon communities in Sangkhla Buri, a small town on Thailand’s western border with Myanmar, will once again be remembering their ancestors next week with a spiritual festival that sees the whole town come alive. A fascinating event that for the past few years has drawn thousands to the area, the Mon Floating Boat Festival, as it is known, reunites the departed with the living.

This year’s festival is being held from September 15 to 17 and is expected to again draw both Mon-speaking people from all over Thailand for family reunions as well as curious tourists.

“The ritual is known to the Mon as ‘Pohamord’, which roughly translates as the Boat of Offerings,” says Mon resident Arunya Chareonhongsa.

The festival not only commemorates departed Mon pilgrims but also banishes evil and brings luck to those still living. It’s a ritual that dates back to the Mon Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1369-1539) and marks the journey of a high-ranking monk and several Buddhist pilgrims across the Bay of Bengal to fetch a set of Buddhist scriptures in Sri Lanka. On their return trip, one boat capsized in rough seas and the pilgrims inside it drowned. On hearing the news, the king sent another boat, this time unmanned and made of bamboo, which was laden with food.

“The boat of food means to appease the hungry souls of the priests,” Arunya explains. “Once the departed priests are happy with the offering, they might send us the Buddha’s teachings and scriptures.”

Like many Asian cultures, the Mon believe their ancestors are lurking somewhere beyond this world, and they can roam around and even return to their homes at this time of year. Chinese and Khmer communities hold true to the same belief and kill chickens and set up the altars for the departed. What makes the Mon different is that they send a boatload of food into the open water.

On the first day (September 15) locals and visitors surround the Phutthakhaya Chedi at Wat Wang Wiwekaram to watch as the men shape long bamboo poles into a boat, a process that usually takes a full day.

While the men are building the bamboo boat, the women busy themselves cooking and preparing the offerings, which mostly consist of popcorn, ripe bananas and boiled rice in banana leaves, candles, honey, water and sticks of sugarcane.

When the boat is ready and decorated with colourful paper flags, it is moved to the front of the huge pagoda where it serves as the centrepiece for the celebrations that follow on the next two nights.

The highlight is the series of cultural shows that showcase the distinctive ways of the Mon. Both old and young dress in beautiful traditional attire – red sarongs and white shirts – and move towards the boat holding trays. Young men, with mouthfuls of chewy betel nut and winning smiles, try to lure the girls who are carrying baskets of food on their heads.

“In the olden days, we also made a lantern and would load it with yellow string and the necessities for entering the monkhood before releasing it into the sky,” Arunya explains.

“Whoever found the monk’s set would be ordained. If a woman found it, she would make a great contribution to the Buddhist temple.”

The ceremony culminates in the boat being towed to the riverbank and pushed out to the water where it begins its slow journey to the spiritual world.

IF YOU GO

< Sangkhla Buri is a home to one of Thailand’s largest Mon communities as well as to Karenni and Bangladeshi populations that add to its ethnic diversity.

Phuket’s Old Town will once again be ablaze with colour on June 18 and 19 as its Peranakan descendants gather for the annual mass Phuket Baba wedding festival. For visitors, the event offers a rare chance of celebrating a generations-old tradition and capturing photos of the happy couples against the backdrop of Sino-Portuguese mansions decked out in red, green, blue, pink, yellow and white.

Known as Baba and Yaya in Phuket, the Peranakan are the descendants of Chinese immigrants who settled around the Malay Peninsula from Malaysia to Singapore to Thailand’s South in the late 15th and 16th-century. The Baba and Yaya were traditionally the offspring of Chinese men and local woman.

The authentic Peranakan wedding can last up to 12 days and is usually carried out according to Chinese tradition in the bride’s house. The ceremony in Phuket, which is arranged every year by the Peranakan descendants themselves with help from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), will last for two days. The aim is to bring back the pride of Peranakan culture once so dominant on the island as well as to promote Phuket as a wedding destination.

“Today, the Peranakan wedding ceremony is very rare if indeed it is held at all. The nuptials of the last couple to marry in traditional Peranakan style probably took place 40 years ago,” says Jarin Neeranatwarodom, who has traced the Peranakan wedding to the early 20th century, when there was a Peranakan community in Phuket.

“We’re delighted to be reinventing such a rare and colourful wedding ceremony.”

You don’t even have to be a Peranakan descendant to marry in Peranakan style. All you need is the person who wants to marry you and you can leave the rest to the City of Phuket.

Part of a tourism campaign designed to turn Phuket into a preferred honeymoon and wedding destination, the annual Peranakan Wedding Ceremony has been arranged for the past five years and has drawn couples from all over the world to tie the knot in the Peranakan way.

The Peranakan are Straits Chinese people who speak Chinese at home and follow Confucianism, but dress and eat more like their Malay mothers. They came to Phuket back in the 19th century where they made their fortunes in the tin mines. They also traded with the Westerners from whom they inherited a love of jazz and other music.

The Sino-Portuguese shophouses and heritage mansions in Phuket’s Old Town are living proof of the Peranakan’s lavish lifestyle and it is one of these in which the weddings are celebrated.

Yaya, the Peranakan women, arrive at the luxury mansion wearing vibrant batik sarongs known as Baju Panjang, and beaded slippers. The Baba or men show up in Baju Lokchuan, long sleeved silk jackets with a Chinese collar.

And as at weddings everywhere, the centre of interest is the bride – or in this case, brides – who, with tiaras perched on their heads, prepares for the biggest day in their lives in the Peranakan bridal suite. The tiaras, with tiny flowers made of gold, are said to serve as a “sensor” to evaluate the bride’s excitement, as she waits for her groom at her house.

“In the old days Peranakan marriages were arranged by their families and the matchmaker,” says Jarin. “One can only imagine how the bride felt, as she had never met her groom. The tiara kept shaking, as her heart beat faster and faster.”

The finale is a celebration of colour and fanfare, with the four newly wedded couples leading a procession through the Old Town.

The parade, which takes place on Sunday afternoon, travels along Thalang Road, home to many of these grand Sino-Portuguese dwellings, as the newlyweds are showered with flower petals.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY “I DO”

WHERE TO STAY:

THE LITTLE NYONYA HOTEL (www.LittleNyonyaHotel.com), a charming boutique hotel, is owned and run by a Thai-Peranakan family in Phuket. The Sino-Portuguese design evokes memories of the old days and the Two Grandmas restaurant serves both Western and Thai food as well as home-made Nyonya cuisine under the supervision of Ama Tu, an experienced Nyonya cook.

MEMORY AT ON-ON HOTEL in Phuket Old Town was originally established in 1923. Leonardo DiCaprio “slept” here while making “The Beach” in 2000. It has a laid-back attitude, with a stylish bar and colonial charm, drawing young travellers in search of a cheap bed and rich history.

WHERE TO EAT

RAYA Housed in one of the old Sino-Portuguese mansions, Raya restaurant is truly in the heart of Phuket Old Town. The chef offers authentic Peranakan cuisine, which blends the Chinese way of cooking with the spices and herbs of Malay Peninsula. Try the slow cooked pork belly (Moo Hong). Book a table at (076) 218 155.

ONE CHUN CAFE & RESTAURANT, a stone’s throw from Raya restaurant and a younger “edition” of the Peranakan eatery, serves traditional Phuket and Peranakan dishes. Both restaurants are run by the same family with Raya favoured by older folk and One Chun by the younger crowd.

Symbols of great mental strength, elephants will once again be contributing to Buddhist rituals later this month as Surin Province in Northeast Thailand hosts its annual ordination parade on elephant back from May 18 to 20.

The colourful ordination parade takes place in the Kui village of Baan Ta Klang, home to Thailand’s largest mahout community.

The elephant has long played an important role in Buddhist beliefs and is often depicted in murals offering a beehive to the Lord Buddha and in statues guarding the stairway to chapels.

In Surin, the elephant also transports novice monks, and visitors to the province are treated to the sight of 30 pachyderms, each groomed and exquisitely painted by his mahout, carrying young males to the temple for their ordination.

The Kui, a Khmer-speaking ethnic group, are famous for capturing and taming wild elephants. In the old days, they would train the elephants for kings and warlords. Today, with the tourist regarded as “king”, they train the descendants of those original beasts for the tourist trade and while the ordination on Elephant-back ritual remains part of their custom, it has also become a tourist attraction.

For years, elephants worked in tourist destinations and hotels, carrying the tourists over the hills and streams. That practice, derided as cruel, has decreased considerably over the years but the Surin ritual allows visitors to see these magnificent beasts up close and personal during the three eventful days of the ordination parade.

The work starts several days before the ordination, with the pachyderms standing patiently as they are washed, painted and groomed by their loving mahouts. Fine embroidered velvet rugs are placed on their heads and backs while their skin becomes resplendent with colourful motifs.

The young Kui too dress up for the occasion, putting on traditional crimson sarongs, white shirts and brightly coloured cloaks. With colourful head crowns and head sets and parasols, the young men look less like monks and more like young princes on elephant back.

On ordination day itself, the 30 elephants parade majestically from Ta Klang village to the temple, negotiating the water of the Chi River to delighted squeals from the visitors.

In ancient times, long before the chapel halls existed, the ordination took place on the sandbars and small islands in the river, in keeping with the story of Prince Siddhartha who left behind his privileged life at the river.

IF YOU GO

How to get there:

 Surin is 430 kilometres east of Bangkok and the journey takes between five and six hours.

 Public buses depart daily from Bangkok’s Northern Terminal (Mor Chit) for Surin.

 AirAsia operates direct flights between Bangkok and Buriram. The Elephant Village is about an hour’s drive from the airport.

Where to stay:

 Buriram, to Surin’s West, offers better beds when it comes to accommodation, with choices varying from the simple yet stylish Klim Hotel to the popular Amari Buriram.

How to get around:

 A van with driver is the best option for first-timers. Vans can accommodate 10 passengers and the charge is around Bt1,800-2,000 per day excluding fuel.

 Visitors with a strong sense of adventure – and a great sense of direction – might prefer to hire a vehicle and drive themselves. However, do make arrangements for self-drive in advance, as rental cars are limited.