As our minivan rounded a mountain pass, a gaggle of giggling teenagers appeared at the fringe of a thatched-roof village.
Hey, I thought, what’s with the buckets and the water guns?
Splash! Ah.
I’d traveled to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to ring in the Lao New Year, but I had only a vague notion of how wet things were about to get.
Spring new year’s festivals are held across Asia, and in Laos the most famous one occurs every April in Luang Prabang, the ancient town on the Mekong River that UNESCO recognized as a World Heritage site in 1995 for its charming blend of local and European architecture. I’d heard from fellow expatriates in Vietnam, where I live, that Luang Prabang’s new year’s bash was not to be missed.
Now, as our minivan approached the town’s glittering Buddhist temples on a hot April afternoon, I saw sagging pickups shuttling revelers around and blasting bass-heavy Laotian pop music. People danced and shimmied through the streets, throwing colored powder and splashing one another with all types of water weapons. It was a far cry from the image that many Americans no doubt have of Laos, a poor Southeast Asian country ravaged by U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War.
The lighthearted mayhem pulsing outside our windows suggested a hybrid of Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, and a tailgate party outside a college football stadium.
Historically, people have poured water during Lao New Year as a gesture of purification and renewal. Apparently the foreign and domestic tourists who had descended on Luang Prabang for this three-day event were planning to study that cultural heritage — the water part, at least — in great detail.
Splash, squish, splosh! The air was hot and dry, but the pavement was drenched, with green and white powder hovering over the dancers in miniature clouds.
“Eep!” said my friend Erin Armstrong, of Memphis, as we raced through a water fight. “Yikes!”
That evening, we wrapped our cameras in plastic bags and hit the streets surreptitiously, trying to stay dry. But water snipers were waiting in every cobblestone alley, and soon we were soaked to the bone, caked in colorful powder and laughing like children.
Scholars say that Lao New Year is probably rooted in 14th-century rituals in which people poured water on the Phra Bang, a famous statue of Buddha, in a ceremony that was said to assure the coming of the rainy season and affirm Buddha’s authority. But it’s difficult to define religion in Laos; although the dominant faith is Theravada Buddhism — a branch of the Buddhist faith that spread over centuries from India to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and other countries — scholars say that many Laotians also worship supernatural entities known as “spirit cults.”
A whole new festival
One thing is clear: The Lao New Year festival has changed considerably in recent decades. In his 2009 book, “Spirits of the Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture,” Holt laments that although in centuries past Lao New Year rituals were probably celebrated with “high sacrality and sobriety,” the event has lately assumed a “carnival atmosphere of lighthearted licensed anarchy.”
But Lao New Year is also good clean fun. On the second day of the festival, I watched a colorful procession of parade floats flanked by dancers, musicians and monks. The crowd was merry, and although many spectators were drinking beer and shooting water guns, I didn’t observe a drop of ill will.
Then we strolled into the temple courtyard and inspected a free-standing apparatus that looked a bit like a storm drain. A knee-high gilded Buddha sat beneath it, suggesting that the chute was a device for pouring ceremonial water on the Buddha’s head.
The teenage monks who were sitting nearby smiled at us encouragingly, so we unscrewed our bottles of mineral water, tipped them into the chute and watched as drops fell upon the gilded recipient.
In town the next morning, I joined a crowd of perhaps 300 to watch monks and Laotian officials carry the Phra Bang Buddha statue to an outdoor podium for a ceremonial washing, a.k.a. “lustration.” This and other washings are meant to restore the statue’s magical properties and officially mark the beginning of the next Lao year.
“Look,” said my friend Khamon Phengsakhone, a student at a local university whom I’d befriended on a previous trip to the area. “The Buddha’s having a shower.”
Buddha might have been the only one. In the course of Luang Prabang’s three-day New Year’s bash, getting anything out of the faucets and spigots in my guesthouse bathroom had been hit-or-miss. In photographs from that day, I look vaguely like a circus performer.
Khamon and I walked to a cafe and ordered breakfast. The town was quiet, and our croissants tasted Parisian. But the restroom was bolted shut, with a sign on the door saying — as if we couldn’t guess — “No Water.”
Laos Insider’s Guide
Get there: United offers connecting flights from Denver International Airport to Bangkok, with late March fares currently starting at about $1,600 round trip. Bangkok Airways offers nonstop flights from Bangkok to Luang Prabang, Laos, with fares starting at about $300 round trip. Tourist visas for U.S. citizens are issued on arrival in Thailand and Laos.
Stay: The Belle Rive Luang Prabang, 011-856-71-260-733, . Charming hotel on the Mekong River. Rooms, all with river views, start at $100 during Lao New Year.
The Apsara, 011-856-71-254-670, . Luxury accommodation on the Nam Khan River. Rooms from $75 all year.
Dine: Tamarind Restaurant and Cooking School, Kingkitsalath Road, on the Nam Khan River next to the Apsara, 011-856-71-213-128, . Serves such classic Lao dishes as mok pa (steamed fish and herbs in banana leaf) and oua si khai (lemon grass stalks stuffed with chicken). Entrees start at $4. Cooking classes from $32 (day) and $25 (evening).
Do: Traditional Arts & Ethnology Centre Ban Khamyong, 011-856-71-253-364, . Nonprofit museum showcasing traditional arts of ethnic minority groups. Tuesday-Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., $2.50.
Green Discovery Laos, Unit 44/3, Sisavangvong Road, Ban Xieng Muan, 011-856-71-212-093, . Popular adventure outfitter offering rafting, trekking and kayaking excursions.
Lao New Year festival. Takes place over three days in April in Luang Prabang. This year’s event is April 13-15.
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