Jackamy - Poya Day

Poya Day

Jackamy

Paul & Derry Harper

Wed 19 Jan 2011 16:23

Wednesday 19th January

The day after we returned from the trip a briefing took place for the next part of the rally, and because of the amount of items to be discussed and the detail that we had to go into the briefing lasted for 5 hours. It was a long day and we were all tired, but word got around about a religious festival that was happening that evening in a village 14 km away. We could all have easily gone off to bed but instead ended up with yet another night that was one for the memory books.

Poya days fall on each full moon and are public holidays. Devout Buddhists visit a temple, fast after noon, and abstain from entertainment and luxury. No alcohol is supposed to be sold and some establishments close. Each poya day is associated with a particular Buddhist ritual and January's, Durutu, marks the first visit of the Buddha to the island.

Shaun from Journey, a new boat that joined in Phuket, arranged the evening for us, including a meal and transport to the village. Joshua, our guide, entertained us at his home with pre-drinks and freshly cooked poppadoms. A few sentences ago I did say that no alcohol is supposed to be sold but we soon realised that not everyone adhere's to the rules. In fact his friend, Ekka, set off in his tuk-tuk to buy us beers from the black market. When he'd been a long time, Joseph called him and discovered that as Ekka had arrived at one stall the owner was being arrested by the police so he had had to go elsewhere. The unplanned random evening was starting well.

Drinks and poppadoms at Josephs

We had a short walk from the vans to the temple and as we turned a corner and saw the temple all lit up I think a "wow" escaped from all our mouths and we stood looking on in amazement. This was not what we had expected. It was gone ten in the evening and there was a buzzing atmosphere, everyone wanted to say hello and shake our hands and any tiredness we felt earlier was now long gone and we were as excited as everyone else. As we walked through the crowds closer and closer to the temple, the lights became clearer and we could make out the temple underneath, it was beautiful. A long walkway led us through rice fields to the foot of the temple where we discarded our shoes and mingled with the worshippers. At first we felt a bit intrusive, as if we were getting in the way of Buddhists wanting to pray, but we soon realised that everyone was genuinely pleased that we were there and happy to share the experience with us. It was a fantastic feeling as we made our way through the temple grounds, smiles were permanently spread across our faces and the people were oozing with energy, it was addictive.

A mass of beautiful lights

Old and young came to pray

As well as the monks

Each Buddha figure told a different story

We were eventually dragged away from the temple to wander through the streets and roadside stalls. Once back at the temple we climbed a hill and picked a spot to watch the procession that would be making it's way down the road, but we couldn't see! Ekka and Joseph disappeared and returned a short while later with an offer we couldn't refuse. Whilst walking along the road we had walked past a platform with around 20 chairs that were 'Reserved for Foreigners' which of course you had to pay to use. But when the guys returned with a deal including a seat, a sandwich, a pasty and coffee for £2.50 we couldn't refuse, if not just for the comedy value, we felt like royalty sat up high on the road.

Sitting on the hill with the temple in the distance

The foreigners in the special seats

The first procession eventually started around 1:30 am, a little later than the expected 11:00 pm. It was great, there was loud music being made by the bands who were either side of dance groups as they made their way along the road. No two dance groups were the same, it started with fire tricks, a boys cracking whips, then there were girls dressed as peacocks dancing, women balancing things on their heads and dancing, stilt walkers, men dressed in the traditional outfits and many many more. In one of the later parades there was even an elephant that was dressed up which was a bit sad, but something we have to accept. I think there were 5 parades all together, 4 were different villages and in the final one they had all come together. They were all praying for a good crop. The next poya day festival will be held in a village by the sea where they will pray for plenty of fish. After watching people dressed in every colour imaginable dancing along in front of us the procession eventually finished around 4:30 am. It was a great and completely unexpected evening but boy were we tired!