Wedding in Laos

    by Alan Davidson

Today Phoumi has been lucky. He has caught six catfish, which he has put in his fishing basket. He caught them in the river in his village, Ban Phone. The water flows slowly in the river, and people grow watercress and lotus flowers in it. The catfish swim about under the lotus leaves.

Phoumi is planning to take four of the catfish home to his mother, but first he is going to give two to his friends. He likes visiting this family, especially when the eldest daughter, Chantala, is at home.

Chantala has helped her mother cook the fish. They already had a chicken for dinner, and lots of vegetables, and enough rice for the whole family, but they were glad to have the fish too. The rice they eat is a special kind called sticky rice, because it sticks together. They eat it out of little baskets, one for each person. They help themselves to all the other food from big plates on a low round table.

After the main part of the meal they eat fruit. Chantala's father says that it was kind of Phoumi to bring the fish. And Chantala's mother, who is called Champah, says that she thinks Phoumi is a good young man, strong and handsome. Chantala blushes, and starts to clear up the dishes to hide her feelings. Champah says: "Do not hurry. We wonder how much you like Phoumi. We think that he likes you and that perhaps he wants to marry you."

Chantala says: "Mother, you have strange ideas. Phoumi brings you a fish and because of that you think that he wants to marry me."

Chantala's father looked up at the little lizards which are running upside down on the ceiling. "Your mother is wise, Chantala, and we should talk about Phoumi. I will not be surprised if his parents come to see us and ask whether he can marry you."

Chantala's younger sister goes up to their room. She knows that their parents wish to talk to Chantala alone. She also knows that she will be able to listen to the discussion from upstairs, because the bamboo walls in the house are very thin.

Champah talks to Chantala very patiently. She understands that Chantala is shy about Phoumi. But after half an hour she has succeeded in making Chantala agree that Phoumi would be a very good husband. She would be happy if he chose her as his wife.

The New Year in Laos comes in the spring. The Lao people celebrate with a festival lasting for about a week. During this time they carry out religious ceremonies, like pouring water over all the Buddha statues in the temples. But they also have fun pouring water over each other, and over strangers as well. Everyone gets wet, but it doesn't matter because the clothes dry quickly in the hot sun.

The New Year is called Pi Mai. It is a time when boys and girls who are courting can spend more time together, because they do not have to keep the rules of behavior which usually keep them apart.

Here is Phoumi pouring water over Chantala. She is lucky that he has not also thrown colored tapioca over her, as some of the boys have done to one group of girls. The tapioca is colored with a dye which does not wash out, and for this reason Lao people ware old clothes while the Pi Mai festival is going on.

The friends of Phoumi and Chantala have known for some time that they are courting. Now, as they go about together all the time during Pi Mai, it becomes obvious that a wedding may be planned. But this cannot happen until everyone has started behaving normally again.

Not long after Pi Mai, Phoumi's mother and father arrange to go and see Chantala's parents. They ask whether Phoumi can marry Chantala, and what her parents will give Chantala if a marriage takes place. When a Lao girl is married she usually receives many gifts, especially if her parents are rich.

Chantala's parents are not very rich, but they are richer than most people in Ban Phone. They have three water-buffaloes to work in their rice fields, and their house is bigger than most of the houses in the village. Also, they have quite a lot of gold and silver. They wear this as heavy bracelets, and silver and gold ornaments. It is the custom in Laos to carry your wealth around with you. Chantala's parents also have money, called kip, but they think that what is really valuable is gold and silver.

Chantala's father has pointed to one of the water-buffaloes and told Phoumi's parents, who only have one water-buffalo, that Chantala will bring one with her if she marries Phoumi.

The talks which the parents have had were satisfactory. They reached agreement in a friendly way on the marriage, and now everyone knows that Phoumi and Chantala will be married before long.

But before the date of the wedding is fixed, Phoumi has to go to the wat. This is the place where the temple is, and where the monks live. Phoumi wants to find out what would be the best day. The monks are very wise, and they can tell that if the marriage takes place on a certain day it will be a happy one. If people did not listen to their advice, and held weddings on bad days, the marriages would not be good ones. The man and his wife would not be happy together and they would not have any children.

So Phoumi is in the wat, kneeling before the oldest monk to ask his advice. The oldest monk is the most wise. He is nearly eighty years old, and he has lived all his life in this wat in Ban Phone. Everyone knows that he is always right about choosing the day for a wedding, and all the people who have followed his advice are happy.

The old monk is blessing the flowers and incense sticks which Phoumi has brought to him. He will then take the decorated screen which is behind him, and hold it in front of his face for ten minutes. The he will give Phoumi his advice. "The best day will be the third day after the next full moon."

Now Phoumi can go back and tell his family, and Chantala's family, that the date is settled.

There is much to be done before the wedding. But everyone in Ban Phone is willing to help, especially as they will all be asked to the feast!

So Champah has five other women working with her, getting the food ready. Some are steaming the rice in a special big steamer set on an open log fire. When the rice is cooked they put it into small baskets for the guests. One woman is pounding spices with pestle and mortar. Others have been cooking chickens and meat and fish. They are lucky because they have caught some snake-heads, ugly fish with heads just like snakes, but very good to eat. The cooked chicken, meat and fish are being put into small bowls. The women are also decorating a round bamboo table with vegetables, all washed and cut up neatly.

Champah's brother, who lives in a town not far away, has brought a turkey. This will be a big treat for everyone. The turkey is kept under a round bamboo cage until it is time to kill it and cook it.

While they work together, the women are saying to each other that Phoumi and Chantala must have somewhere to live. It will be best if all the villagers join together and build a house for them. Building a house in Laos only takes two days or so, because it can all be made of bamboo.

So the next day Phoumi asks the advice of the monks about a good place to build a house. Two of the monks show him a place that they think very suitable, because there is a good spirit dwelling in a tree nearby. They show the villagers the exact place where the front of the house should be.

Then the work begins. Some of the villagers make holes in the ground and carry away stones and dig up bushes that are in the way of the building. Others bring strong pieces of bamboo and build the main supports of the house. Then they bring medium-sized ones for the roof and veranda.

The women have been weaving strips of bamboo into big squares to start making the walls and the thatch for the roof. When it rains in Laos, it rains very hard, and the roof of a house must be strong. The floor is high above the ground in case the river floods and there is a ladder up to the veranda.

Everyone wants the house for Phoumi and Chantala to be one of the most beautiful in the village, and well built. But they know that if it is blown down in a storm they will be able to build it up again the next day!

Phoumi and Chantala have dressed up in their best clothes for the wedding. Phoumi looks very handsome in his special purple pantaloons, which are like a mixture of trousers and skirt. He has hardly ever worn them before, but they are very comfortable. Chantala is wearing a new skirt with very beautiful embroidery around the bottom, and an embroidered silk sash. She has gold ornaments in her hair, the same ones which her mother wore at her wedding, and perhaps her grandmother too.

The wedding and the baci which follows it are really one long ceremony. A monk conducts the wedding. Then a magic man comes for the baci. He wears a red and white robe with a striped sash. He holds flowers in his hands.

Phoumi and Chantala are listening to the magic man as he chants blessings on them. In a few minutes he will make each of them hold an egg while he ties white cotton threads round their wrists. Afterwards everyone else will tie threads round Phoumi and Chantala's wrists, and offer good wishes. Then the people will start tying threads on each other's wrists and the fun will begin. By the time they come to eat the feast, everyone will have white bundles of threads round their wrists, but no one will have as many as Phoumi and Chantala.

After the wedding Phoumi and Chantala lived for a few days in the house of Chantala's parents. This is the custom in Laos, and people in the village would have been shocked if they had not followed it. Besides, these few days gave the villagers plenty of time to make sure that the house was ready, and for Phoumi's father to arrange the furniture.

Now the time has come for the young couple to go and live in their own house. They take with them to the house baskets of food prepared by Chantala and her mother. They will be sure to have lots of the sticky rice which Lao people like better than ordinary rice. They will have vegetables and eggs and dried fish.

All the villagers hope that Phoumi and Chantala will be very happy in their new home. And so do we.

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