Loei has more ghosts to share with visitors than those who haunt Phi Ta Khon
As farmers in Yasathon tend to their home-made rockets in preparation for blast-off on May 10, their fellow agriculturists in Loei province are busy with a more spiritual kind of ceremony, one that pays tribute to the beast that ploughed their fields - the buffalo.
Known locally Maeng Na Ngam, the festival has long been part and parcel of village life, with villagers donning buffalo masks and roaming the streets to honour the spirit of the Asian answer to the ox.
In recent years, though, the local tourist authorities have brought this virtually unknown ritual to the public eye and today Maeng Na Ngam, as its known, has become a fully-fledged festival with music, dance and colourful costumes drawing visitors to a small village to party.
Held in Baan Na Sao in Chiang Khan district from this Sunday through Tuesday, the festival may remind some visitors of the Phi Ta Khon event that is held every June in nearby Dan Sai. The residents of Baan Na Sao insist though that they are not copying the province's most famous festival. And indeed this ritual does have its roots in the village, which has been home to the Phuan, a Dai-speaking ethnic group, for more than 100 years. The Phuan believe that spirits live on after death including in the buffaloes that for hundreds of years helped them in the rice fields.
Back in the old days when the buffalo was a workhorse, many of the beasts died from exhaustion. Upset perhaps at their early demise, their spirits would leave their bodies and wander endlessly around the forest, reservoir and village, sometimes even following the farmers into their homes. To appease the wandering spirits, the people of Baan Na Sao would hold the Maeng Na Ngam festival just before the start of each rice-growing season.
Buffalo masks, some of them cute and others more fearsome, are crafted out of wood and every member of the family dons one to celebrate the spirit of the buffalo.
The actual Maeng Na Ngam takes place on Sunday May 3 and starts with the locals gathering at Wat Bho Sri. Then the mediums - usually elderly women in pink costumes - lead the villagers to the local spirit shrine, which houses the guardian of the village. Here the mediums reveal the messages sent by the spirit and guardian and after knock off some hefty shots of rice wine, return with the rest of the villagers, now clutching handfuls of flower in their hands, to the temple for prayers and chanting.
The festival culminates on Monday, when thousands of villagers gather at the temple in the morning dressed in colourful costumes and wearing the buffalo masks. Fuelled by sensational Isaan music - and, one suspects, some rice wine - this troupe of "buffalo spirits" marches through the village paying respect to those beasts of burden whose hard work on the farms brought about an early death.
Rustic and good-natured, the Maeng Na Ngam Festival is yet another example of the spirit of Isaan - a region where fun is a serious business. In many ways, this little-known festival is far less touristy than the famous Phi Ta Khon event thus offering visitors a more authentic taste of an age-old tradition.
The festival wraps early on the third day with the villagers rising before dawn to offer alms at the temple.
IF YOU GO
Thai AirAsia (www.AiraAsia.com) and Nok Air (www.NokAir.com) operates daily flights between Bangkok (Don Mueang) and Loei.
An overnight bus runs between Bangkok's Northern Bus Terminal (Mo Chit 2) and Chiang Khan.
Baan Na Sao, in Chiang Khan, is about two and half hours ride from downtown Loei.
Chiang Khan, a small and peaceful town on the banks of the Mekong River, is the base camp for the Maeng Na Ngam Festival and offers plenty of guesthouses, hotels and restaurants looking out over the Mekong.