magic

Just when I was beginning to feel pretty fed up with the "touristic approach of Luang Pra Bang", you know what I mean, 10.000 kip to enter this temple (UNESCO declared World Heritage), 20.000 kip to go into the museum, 2.000 kip to pee, 4.000 kip to cross the bamboo bridge, 50.000 kip to breathe......

Just then, magic appeared. Yesterday I was invited to the ceremony for the reincarnation of the deceased parents of a Laotian Lady who has been living in France for the last 30 years. The ceremony was held in a temple and consisted of two magnificent hours of chanting in Pali language. Nine monks plus all the villagers, the lady's neighbours, and I chanted along for almost two hours.

There's something in the Buddhist chants. They trance you, they wrap you up, even that you don't understand what they say, they still put a spell on you. They help to meditate. After the ceremony, we all ate together inside the temple, "this is Laotian culture" I was told.

And this morning, it happened again. After refusing to pay another 10.000 kip to go into a temple and see another Buddha image and bla, bla, bla... I came across a little "handicrafts' work corner", this is the best way I find to describe it. It was basically a small wooden table and two Thai Dam women plus some children making bracelets, the bracelets that they sell afterwards at the Night Market in Luang Pra Bang. These bracelets are made of tree seeds, coloured-crystal balls and pieces of Coca-cola cans.

I sat down at the table with them and after buying one of these pieces of art, I asked them to let me make one. And this was the starting point. They put me their traditional headwear, they took pictures of all of us with my camera and we chatted while making the bracelets for nearly two hours. In that time I managed to make 4 bracelets. In the market these bracelets will suppose a total of 90 cents of a US dollar earnings.