This supernaturally adept monk spends the entire year meditating peacefully beneath the flowing waters in the form of a white marble orb. With his advanced magical abilities, he is the only homeboy who is strong enough to protect the 'hood from the evil army set to descend upon them. While most of the village is still asleep, fearsome entities are clawing their way across the divide between life and eternal twilight. Flashes of an albino sphere shimmer under the liquid surface of dreams. By 7am the procession has moved from the river to Phon-Chai temple in the center of town.
Food is offered to monks as worshippers circle a whitewashed stupa rising from a red dirt courtyard.
Overly amplified announcements echo from speakers hung from a tilting, teakwood seminary. The littlest ghosts are the first to show themselves, pursued by a throng of Thai press photographers. What follows, during the next two days of drunken excess, is hardly sort of wholesome family event that gets promoted. The children are charming enough for the press corps, even as their elder siblings are behind closed doors, stripping down and covering each other with mud and soot, and arming themselves with penis-shaped weapons of monstrous proportions. Phi Ta Khon is Halloween for kids in Dansai.