============================================================== To reach ALL SJD members, please send to sjd@satjadham.net ... Do NOT include any other addresses when sending to the list... Include as LITTLE of the original messages as possible........ Message sent by: LanXang Siengkhene *** Announcement: *** Please register for SatJaDham Fifth Annual conference at the website http://www.satjadham.org/sjd5sd/ ============================================================== The other day, my friend Thip called me from New York and asked if I had a chance to water the Buddha stature or not. At that instance, I just realized that it was Pimai Lao (Lao New Year). Wow! What a difference between Pimai Lao in the U.S. and back home. Here, I didn't get even a bit of pouring water on me on that occasion. In contrast, back home, my clothes were constantly wet despite the hot sun of the dry season. In fact, there was hardly any adults throwing water at us but who cared we did it among ourselves. We would load our water pistol and fired repeatedly at any of us in sight. For three days from sunrise to sunset, it was a water show time. To say the least, our show time was far more civilized than the adults did. There, they tended to resort to things that we, kids, did hardly imagine of. One was the use of water that made you itch. Mainly, it was the guys thing. They tended to get satisfaction that their water could make the pretty girls scratch her private parts. The harder the girls scratch those parts, the merrier they guys were. Another thing was the rubbing of the girls' faces with the charcoal. I remembered that the guys busted into our house and rubbed my big sister's face with the charcoal. Before they left, they got creative by mixing water with the color and dumped it on her. Yes, for the Pimai spirit, everything was pardoned. Wonder if anybody dared to do the same thing in the U.S., that person would sure get a lawsuit. What I found worth admiring was that, on this occasion, our house was thoroughly clean. My mom told us that a cleaning house was a way to greet the New Year. It suggested that we would get rid of whatever was bad and began anew. Also, my parents took us to the temple to pour scented water on the holy monk and the sacred Buddha. Of course, we had a Buddha statue at our altar that we brought down to be watered but the act of going to the temple with the community to celebrate this big event was part and parcel of our culture that made us uniquely Lao. At the end of the three days festival, my parents took the Buddha statue back to his altar. (to be continued) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send online invitations with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.yahoo.com _ ***************************************************************** Visit SatJaDham Homepage at: http://www.satjadham.org (or .net) *****************************************************************