Surin monks covered in white powder during Songkran rite
A relic procession at a Surin temple turned into a light-hearted Songkran scene as monks and novices were splashed with water and smeared with wet white powder.
It was a rare sight to see Buddhist monks in saffron robes covered from head to toe in wet white powder. Yet at Wat Pa Thammawongsaram in Ban Samrong village in Surin, the unusual scene drew laughter from both the monks themselves and their lay followers.
Monks are normally held in high respect by local residents, but on Sunday (April 12) the atmosphere turned unusually light-hearted as monks and novices at the temple in Tambon Kaen, Sanom district, joined the annual Songkran celebrations.
The event centred on a procession carrying a Buddha relic from the temple’s Mahathat Chedi, allowing local people to pay their respects and seek blessings.
To make the procession more fun on a sweltering day, lay followers splashed water on the monks as it moved along. Men and boys also took the opportunity to smear wet white powder on the heads and faces of the monks and novices. As women are not permitted to touch monks and novices, they could only join in by splashing water from a distance.
Even so, female followers shared in the laughter as they watched the results. The monks themselves also could not help laughing at the sight of one another.
Some monks and novices became almost unrecognisable beneath the thick coating of white powder, with only their eyes and smiles visible. By the time the procession reached the ceremonial pavilion for the final ritual, both monks and lay followers were still smiling at the sight of faces and saffron robes turned almost completely white.
