Khmer New Year 2010

No dolphins in any of my pictures!
Collecting the blessed water

Giving buddha a spring clean

Posing on Don Dhet

From 14-16th April it was Khmer New Year, which is a Buddhist celebration of the new year of the Tiger.

Although there were only 3 days public holiday, most people in government offices and schools take from 6th April off as it is their main holiday of the year. So this meant a couple of fairly boring weeks for me, however, we had heard about this ahead of time so myself and the other youth volunteers decided to use this break to head off to Laos.

We decided to head to the area known as ‘4000 Islands’ which is really close to the Cambodian border and very beautiful this time of year as the water level has dropped in The Mekong causing lots of small islands to emerge from the river. This provides some beautiful swimming spots and beaches.

For the New Year ceremony itself we headed to the local temple on Don Dhet (the main island in the complex) to see for ourselves exactly what is involved. The ceremony began in one of the small temples with the men entering with a couple of monks and chanting. Meanwhile, outside, families were setting up camp, sat in small groups with bowls of what looked like tea and fruit. When the monks were finished all the men carried out all the statues and religious artefacts (including bits of wood and stones) and placed them on a bamboo table in the main area of the pagoda. After some more praying it was a mad rush to grab the biggest and fanciest looking statue and bring it back to your families’ camp. The whole family then proceeded to wash them with the tea, scrubbing them with the fruit and leaves and rinse it all down with what looked like yellow dyed water. After the cleaning process the statues are returned to the tables and water is thrown over them all (and everyone stood around!). It took me a moment to notice but the space underneath the table was crammed full of young children capturing the liquid being poured over the religious statues. This is seen as blessed water and afterwards someone poured some over my head declaring that I had been blessed by Buddha. Happy days.

After this ceremony the main party began with many water fights ensuing and people generally celebrating. It was a lovely experience and I was really glad that I got the opportunity to witness the New Year celebrations which were taking place in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

On my way back from Laos I took the opportunity to spend the weekend in a town called Kratie, famous for its fresh water irrawady dolphins. These dolphins are very endangered as something has happened to the species meaning all the calves keep dying. It is unknown what has caused this, although environment is thought t be the most likely. WWF have said that they will have completely died out within 10 years so I took this rare opportunity to view them. When we got to the pool where the dolphins are most frequently seen I was surprised to be quickly ushered onto a boat and proceed to see many of these rare creatures. Naturally they were practically impossible to get a photograph of and I have many shots of just random patches of river. If you want to see them you will have to visit Kratie!

So that is the end of holidays for the moment for me, however, in May there are lots more public holidays (there isn’t a month in Cambodia without at least one!) so I hope this will give me a chance to pop to Phnom Penh to have a bit of a reality check!