New Taigress

Shan Culture - Social Life

Unofficial Shan refugees hold first ordination in camp

2 May 2006 - Tawngtai

Unofficial Shan refugees, living along the border of Thailand and the Shan township of Mongton, held their first ordination on Sunday, April 30, for forty boys. Many of them are orphans and all have no official status in Thailand, precluding travel outside the village.

The camp houses over 600 refugees who had fled fighting in 2002. The picturesque views of the surrounding mist-enshrouded hills and the orderly rows of tea and lychee trees rustling in the wind belie the fact that this was once fiercely contested territory. Once held by a Shan resistance army, a series of fierce battles in 2002 routed the Shans. The Burmese army and their Wa allies then seized the three main villages of Hwe Yao, Pang Kam Kaw, and Pang Maisoong.

“At first, we did not want to flee,” said Sai Hsu, a middle-aged Shan man now resident in the camp. “When the fighting started, the women and children left first. The men wanted to stay and move some of our belongings. But then the Burmese and Wa came. They took our belongings, our pigs and rice. They accused us of helping the SSA [Shan State Army]. Several men were taken to jail and beaten; the soldiers killed some of the villagers and cut up the bodies. There was nothing we could do.”

The Shan villages were then burned to the ground by Burmese troops. Unable to survive any longer, the remaining villagers fled, residing as unofficial refugees in the camp, just inside Thai territory. They rebuilt what they could of the village, the orderly rows of bamboo houses with neatly-cut hedges a testament to the organizational skills of the villagers. They then eked out a living as best they could, as undocumented migrants in Thailand.

Despite these hardships, this was a long-awaited day of celebration and excitement, their many worries temporarily forgotten, as 40 novices were ordained, bringing great merit to themselves and their families. The day prior, the villagers had beseeched the guardian spirits of the village to bless the ceremony, keeping the candles and incense burning all night. They appeared to have heard. The remnants of Cyclone Mala had moved into northern Thailand from Burma on Saturday, bringing severe thunderstorms. However, just prior to the start of the celebration, the rain ceased and the clouds instead provided a comfortable shade from the otherwise scorching April sun.

Sai Hseng, a 10 year-old boy ordained in the ceremony, was one of the lucky ones: he was able to escape with both his parents from their village of Hwe Yao. The whole family now lives in this camp.
“At my village, there were often fighting and so my parents took me and fled to Thailand," the beaming novice-to-be said. "I am so happy to become a novice today.”

However, some changes to the traditional Shan ordination ceremony had to be made, an adaptation to the circumstances facing the villagers. For example, rather than wearing the costly colorful garments and ornaments mimicking the dress of the Buddha before his ordination, the novices-to-be wore simple white cotton shirts and pants. The robes, alms bowls, and offerings were all donated and were of varying sizes and shades of saffron. And, unlike in other Shan towns, this ordination was deliberately kept small to control costs.

Loong Pang, whose son was amongst the boys ordained, said that it would be impossible for him to support a traditional Shan ordination here otherwise, his job as a laborer outside the camp only earning 70-80 baht a day.

"It hurts a bit to have to do an ordination ceremony different from home. There [in Shan State] even though we had no money, we were happy. Here, everything requires money," he wistfully added. However, he was proud that his son is amongst the new novices and plans to keep him in the temple for a while, which will help reduce some of the family’s expenses.

Another difference was also evident as the novices lined up in their procession to the temple, a simple structure made of woven bamboo strips topped by a thatch roof. The youngest was only seven years old; the eldest, at 19 year of age, towered over him. Several others were also well in their teens. In Shan culture, almost all boys ordained are between eight and eleven years old. This was yet another reminder that, where this rite of passage could be held annually elsewhere, there were many barriers precluding this here.

However, these differences were put aside amidst the laughter and smiles of proud friends, family, and invited guests. The crowd spilled out of the temple, and many had to peek in between gaps in the bamboo strips to see the ceremony going on inside. Most were dressed in their best Shan outfits, sated by the seemingly endless trays of food carried from the kitchen. Several Palaung women were also in attendance, wearing elaborate headdresses bedecked with colorful beads. They too had fled from Shan State when the Burmese Army and their Wa allies took control.

At mid-day, the new novices finally emerged from the temple. They shifted nervously in their new saffron robes, lining up under the tutelage of their new mentors, squinting as the sun finally beamed in silent benediction from behind the clouds.

Note: All names have been changed for security reasons.

first ordination

Story and photographs courtesy of Shanland