Nang & Ben’s Wedding in Ubon Ratchathani October 3, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Thailand , trackbackI’ve been friendly with Nang since January 2003 and with her partner Ben since he arrived in Bangkok about February 2004 and I was very excited about spending the weekend in the north-east of Thailand in Ubon Ratchathani for their wedding.
I flew there with Ben, Ben’s family, A and Masaya on the Friday afternoon. Tik joined us after work, flying from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani airport herself. We spent two nights in a new hotel, about 30 minutes from Nang’s family house.
I’d not seen Masaya for months and it was great to catch up with him and to have some time with A who usually gets only a few hours free each week.
The wedding was an interesting hybrid of the Buddhist and Christian religions. On the Saturday morning we arrived at Nang’s parent’s house. Although Nang and Ben were late to arrive, the family and I offered gifts of rice to a scheduled procession of monks who were there in order to grant good luck to the wedding. This ritual is known as ‘Tambun’ I believe.
As the photo above shows, Nang looked beautiful in her traditional Thai wedding dress and Ben looked handsome in his Thai attire.
As Nang and Ben were a little behind schedule we all had to visit a Thai temple to pray so that they could make the late offerings to the monks there. Once done we went to Nang’s house for the Thai marriage ceremony.
The ceremony was done in the main room of the house. Nang and Ben sat by a large symbolic object, similar in shape and size to a Christmas tree. It contained candles, string and decoration. This ‘tree’ connotes various buddhist messages.
We knelt on the floor for about 25 minutes as the monk chanted blessings. In my bid to ‘live my Aikido’ I knelt in a traditional Aikido position for as long as I possibly could. After perhaps 15 minutes I realized that I’d effectively cut of the circulation in both feet and could not feel either of them. I had to move them into a more practical cross legged position with my hands. I was absolubtly petrified that should the service soon end I’d be completely unable to stand up unassisted.
As the monk finished, the village folk and family practiced a very friendly and traditional way of greeting new friends and spreading goodwill. Every person in the room takes a length of string and ties it around the wrist of another. In doing this they wish good health, good luck and happiness. I really enjoyed this. My Thai brain seemed to be in good working order this weekend and I was really relishing speaking Thai to Nang’s family and the village folk. After loading my left wrist with string bracelets from well-wishers I took some string myself so that I could reciprocate this gesture to the children who were there.
Apparently you are not meant to break the strings, and (I think) you are meant to keep them on for 3 days. After that you should untie them if they do not slide off easily. Presumably in not doing so the good luck and kind wishes become void.
The Thai ceremony finished shortly after lunchtime and we had about 6 hours before the Christian wedding began. We took the time to visit a monkey reserve which was fun, and also to get some much needed rest in the hotel.
The Christian service began about 6pm at Nang’s house. The family had made a big effort to set tables throughout the street, they had erected a large stage and I guess some kind of an altar for the wedding to be centered around.
This was a village wedding and therefore it is effectively an open invite to anybody in the neighborhood to attend. There was therefore no problem blocking off the entire section of the street for the party.
Nang and Ben were married by Ben’s father. He is a minister in the USA and he conducted a short English language service. Following from that A, Masaya, Tik and I were seated together and had a hearty meal of chicken, soups and traditional Thai cuisine. During this time a group of traditional Issan dancers were entertaining us on the stage.
The wedding wound down perhaps about 10pm or a little later. I wasn’t wearing a watch but we were all back in bed before midnight.
The following day Nang took the Americans and our group to a national park to visit a waterfall. We were running late to catch our return flight so we hurried back to the airport and made it back to Bangkok safely.
Nang and Ben’s wedding was a memory I shall not forget. There was a lot of good that came from those two-and-a-half-days. I really believe that our immediate group of A, Masaya, Tik and I have become a lot closer. After returning to Bangkok we all went out for a wonderful meal together and got to know each other a lot more. It’s occasions like this I feel so proud to have such a wonderful and compatible group of friends.
Tik and I really have come to appreciate just how perfect our relationship is and we are now officially “engaged-to-be-engaged” at the end of March 2006. The events and the planning of the wedding were of great interest to us too and we have some really wonderful ideas as to what we will be doing when wedding bells ring in our ears some time in 2007.
I’ve scattered a few thumbnails within this blog but you can view the complete album here.
Comments»
Should have stuck to paying the bar fine mate!now all the family will be into you big time for your cash.
I’ve done a really good job of pretending to be ugly, poor and dull for the last 6 months, so good in fact that it’s become my second persona.
Now when I reveal my handsomeness, and intellect to the family, perhaps they’ll forget about the money
)
In ya dreams chum