Of all the feasts and festivals in Thailand, which are many, the Songkran Festival is the most striking, for it is widely observed not only in this country but also in Burma, Cambodia and the Lao State.

Songkran is a Sanskrit word in Thai form which means the entry of the sun into any sign of the Zodiac. But the Songkran in this particular instance is when the sun enters the sign of Aries or the Ram. Its full name is Maha Songkran or Major Songkran to distinguish it from the other ones. But the people call it simply the Songkran for it is the only one they know and in which they take interest. It is their traditional New Year when they can enjoy their holidays to the full with no economic hindrance. Songkran is a fixable feast on the solar calender. It begins on the 13th April and ends on the 15th April, but occasionally in certain years on the 16th April. The Songkran is in fact the celebration of the vernal equinox similar to those of the Indian Holi Festival, the Chinese Ching Ming, and the Christian Festival of Easter. The beginning of spring when the sun crosses the equator is now on the 21st of March which is due to the precession of the equinox. The Songkran Festival is in a certain sense like April Fool’s Day, when the maids of the village play pranks on any gallant who happens to pass by their way. He will be caught and bound by the united strength of the maids and they will daub him with blacking.

On the eve of Songkran Day, i.e. on the 12th April, the people clean their house and burn all the refuse. This is a Spring Cleaning Day done as a duty in the belief that anything bad belonging to the old year will be unlucky to the owner if left and carried on to the coming New Year. It is something like a Public Health Cleaning Day but backed by traditional belief has proved more effective to emotional people than prosaic reason.

Early on the first day of Songkran, the 13th April, the people both young and old in their new clothing go to the Wat or monastery belonging to their village or district to offer food to the monks there. A long table is erected in the compound of the wat where monk’s alms bowls stand in a row on either side of the table. Into the alms bowls the gathering people put boiled rice and into the covers of the alms bowls, food, fruits and sweetmeats. Such a performance can be seen at wats outside Bangkok on Songkran Day. While the monks partake of their feast, music sometimes is played to celebrate the occasion.

In the afternoon of the same day there is bathing ceremony of the Buddha images and also of the abbot of the wat. After this begins the well-known “water throwing feast”. The bathing of images is done as ritualistic ceremony, but it is no other than a New Year’s purification. Younger people will also on this day or the succeeding days go to pay their respect to and ask blessings from their elders and respected persons. They will pour scented water into the palms of the old people and present them with a towel and other bathing requisites. In the old days it was an actual bathing where the young people helped the old people to take a bath and to change their old clothing and put on the new clothes which the young people presented them as an act of respect to the aged on the occasion of the New Year.

Another duty to be done during the Songkran Festival is a religious service called Bangsakun performed in sacred memory to the dead. When a person died and was cremated, the ashes and charred bones of common people were buried at the root of a sacred fig-tree in a wat. Such trees are to be found in the grounds of almost every wat. It is a symbol of the Lord Buddha’s enlightenment for under such a tree did Buddha sit in meditation and receive his enlightenment. If a person is able to erect a Pra Chedi or pagoda in the wat the ashes and bones are then deposited in it. In later times a portion of the bones was sometimes kept in the house in a receptacle. On Songkran Day a religious service in sacred memory to the dead may be officiated by a monk or monks at the place where the ashes and the bones have been deposited, or as in some localities the people bring their dead bones to a village wat in company with others where a joint memorial service is performed. In some parts of the country the guardian spirits of the village and town receive also their annual offerings on Songkran Days. Obviously there are reminiscences or traces of ancestor and animistic worship in by-gone days.

Although Songkran officially starts on the 13th April, some people like to get the festivities off to an early start. After all, four days isn’t usually enough time for a water fight. The pictures on the following pages were taken while I was having a break from the fun. I went around in a car for a couple of hours to try and give you a feeling of what it is like on the streets. All of these pictures were taken in Paknam in Samut Prakan. Most provinces would be the same as this.

Traffic Control. During Songkran, the mob is in control of the roads and if you are on a motorbike and they ask you to slow down then you’d better do what they say.

This way please, slow down so that we can throw water on you! No, there isn’t any ice in the buckets!

That was fun wasn’t it?

Motorcyclists are prime targets as they don’t have any guns to fire back with. The two girls on the back of this bike have their faces smeared with white powder.

Two pick-up trucks passing each other slow down to fire all guns at the enemy.

A bunch of very wet girls having fun!

Information from: “Essays on Cultural Thailand” by Office of the National Culture Commission.

Thailand has long been known for the rich diversity of its attractions, but the continuing development of the Kingdom

Post-1973 has been marked by a struggle to define the political contours of the state. It was won by the King and General Prem Tinsulanonda, who favored a monarchy constitutional order.

The post-1973 years have seen a difficult and sometimes bloody transition from military to civilian rule, with several reversals along the way. The revolution of 1973 inaugurated a brief, unstable period of democracy, with military rule being reimposed after the 6 October 1976 Massacre. For most of the 1980s, Thailand was ruled by Prem Tinsulanonda, a democratically-inclined strongman who restored parliamentary politics. Thereafter the country remained a democracy apart from a brief period of military rule from 1991 to 1992. The populist Thai Rak Thai party, led by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, came to power in 2001. Though he was popular with the rural poor for his social programs, his rule came under attack due to several charges: human right abuse, suppression of a free press, conflict of interest, anti- monarchy, and corruption. In mid-2005, Sondhi Limthongkul, a well-know media tycoon, became the foremost Thaksin’s critic. Eventually Sonthi and his alliances founded an opposition mass movement called ‘the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), beginning its mass street protest.

On September 19, 2006, after the dissolution of the parliament, Thaksin then became the provisional government. While he was in New York for a meeting of the UN, Army Commander-in-Chief Lieutenant General Sonthi Boonyaratglin launched the bloodless September 2006 Thailand military coup d’?tat. A general election on 23 December 2007 restored a civilian government, led by Samak Sundaravej of the People’s Power Party, with close relation to Thaksin.

In mid-2008, the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) led large protests against the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, whom they criticized for his ties to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. On 26 August 2008, the protesters occupied several government ministries, including the Government House, to force the government to give in to demands.^[6] Beginning August 29, protesters disrupted air and rail infrastructure, including Suvarnabhumi airport.^[7]. The chaos ended in December when three of the parties that formed the government were dissolved by the Constitutional Court for serious election fraud.^[8] After this decision, many previous coalition partners of the government then defected and joined the main opposition party, the Democrat party, to form a new government.^[9]

The Siamese revolution of 1932 was led by a group of young military officers and civil servants. The group held key figures, ministers who were of the royal blood as hostages while the king, Rama VII, was at the summer palace in Hua Hin. The coup, usually called ‘The Revolution of 1932′, transformed the Government of Thailand from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. The cabinet was presided by the prime minister. Military men always played a significant role in the politics even before 1932. Already in 1912, during the Rama VI reign, young soldiers had been arrested who had plotted a coup urging a constitution and a change of the king’s status.

King Rama VII, Prajadhipok initially accepted this change, granting the Constitution but later abdicated from his position due to conflicts with the government. The revolutionary government decided to install his ten year old nephew, Ananda Mahidol as the new monarch. Upon his abdication, King Prajadhipok said that the duty of a ruler was to reign for the good of the whole people, not for a selected few. Thai politics ran into turmoil as the revolutionary government plunged into factions; military and intellectuals. A coup and a rebellion took place. Eventually the military faction took control. The regime became evidently authoritarian under the prime minister Luang Phibulsongkram, one of the members of the Revolutionary military wing.

The young King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) died in 1946 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, the official explanation being that he shot himself by accident while cleaning his gun. He was succeeded by his brother Bhumibol Adulyadej, the longest reigning king of Thailand, and very popular with the Thais. Although nominally a constitutional monarchy, Thailand was ruled by a series of military governments, most prominently led by Luang Phibunsongkhram and Sarit Dhanarajata, interspersed with brief periods of democracy.

In early January 1941, Thailand invaded French Indochina, beginning the French-Thai War. The Thais, better equipped and outnumbering the French forces, easily reclaimed Laos. The French decisively won the naval Battle of Koh Chang.

The Japanese mediated the conflict, and a general armistice was declared on January 28. On May 9 a peace treaty was signed in Tokyo, with the French being coerced by the Japanese into relinquishing their hold on the disputed territories.

On December 8, 1941, a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan demanded the right to move troops across Thailand to the Malayan frontier. Japan invaded Thailand and engaged the Thai army for six to eight hours before Phibunsongkhram ordered an armistice. Shortly thereafter Japan was granted free passage, and on December 21, 1941, Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a secret protocol wherein Tokyo agreed to help Thailand regain territories lost to the British and French (i.e. the Shan States of Burma, Malaya, Singapore, & part of Yunnan, plus Laos & Cambodia) Subsequently, Thailand undertook to ‘assist’ Japan in its war against the Allies. NOTE: Japan’s distrust of Thailand extended to the point of rearming their ‘ally’ with controlled munitions, including the famous Siamese Mauser, which was manufactured in an unusual caliber. The Seri Thai (Free Thai Movement) was an underground resistance movement against Japan that was supported by the United States and operated freely, often with support from members of the Royal family (Prince Chula Chakrabongse) and members of the government.

After Japan’s defeat in 1945, with the help of Seri Thai, Thailand was treated as a defeated country by the British and French, although American support mitigated the Allied terms. Thailand was not occupied by the Allies, but it was forced to return the territory it had regained to the British and the French. In the postwar period Thailand had relations with the United States, which it saw as a protector from the communist revolutions in neighboring countries.

Communist guerillas existed in the country from early ’60s up to 1987, counting almost 12,000 full-time fighters at the peak of movement,but never posed a serious threat to the state.

Recently, Thailand also has been an active member in the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), especially after democratic rule was restored in 1992.