Loei - Phi Ta Khon

Every year in June or July (the date is not fixed), the town of Dan Sai hosts the Phi Ta Khon (or Pee Ta Khon) festival. This year, the festival fell on a weekend so the number of visitors topped 60,000 - hotels as far away a Loei City (80 km away) were fully booked as the festival had been promoted even on CNN. 

The ceremony usually starts as early as 3 AM with a parade of men from Phon Chai Temple in Dan Sai district to the Man River. Before sunrise, they perform a rite to invite Phra Up Pa Khut, which is considered to be a white marble representation of a holy monk having supernatural powers that can change his form to be whatever he likes to be. The procession will then bring Phra Up Pa Khut back to the temple where the sacred worship will begin.

The colourful activities begin on the second day at dawn with local people dressed as Phi Ta Khon. They cheerfully perform and dance around the village in the afternoon.  Beautifully decorated cars make up the street parade adorned by colourful flowers and candles. Late on the second day, bamboo rockets will be launched into the sky to encourage rain clouds to soak the fields prior to rice planting.


Phi Ta Khon is one half of a festival known as 'Bun Pha Ves.' The other half is the Bun Bang Fai, a festival held to "celebrate" fertility -- the Phi Ta Khon dancers cheerfully wave giant wooden phalluses around and the rockets are also potent symbols of male virility.