Becoming a monk in Laos

I met a young man who was just about to becoming a monk when I was walking around a temple in Vientiane.  A 29 year old man named Tony was busy setting up his ceremony, but noticed me and invited me to join his important ritual.  Cool!  It was a great experience for me.

According to some data, about 90% of people in Laos are Buddhists.  They are very faithful and most of men in Laos become a monk at least once in a lifetime.  The period varies from about a week to several years.

Becoming a monk means accumulating good deeds and a way of expressing their devotions to their parents in Laos.  I thought that staying in a temple is harsh for young people who are accustomed to the modern life style.  However, as long as I know, they seem to be very happy and proud of themselves.

In cities like Vientiane, the period is relatively short and Tony said that he was staying in the temple for a week.  However, people in older generation used to spend more time.  In rural areas, it’s even longer and some of them spend several years.  Temples used to be nursing homes and schools as well and children from poor families grew up there with enough food and good education.

Tony had his hair cut and changed his clothes from T-shirts to the white attire for the ceremony while his family members were decorating his closet with ornaments and offerings.  Food for a feast was already ready.  Tony and his leading monk moved forward just in front the main Buddha statue.

↓Thank you very much for your click.

にほんブログ村

Gardens by the Bay in Singapore

Where there is money, interesting architectures appear.  Singapore is no exception.  With the background of good economy, we can see a lot of unique buildings being built there.

“Gardens by the Bay” that was opened in June must be definitely a new landmark of Singapore.  When you step into the Marina area, you’ll be surprised to see huge shell-or-whale-like shaped glass wall domes.  They are two of the world’s largest column-less greenhouses.

The one, which is called “Flower Dome” is a conservatory, which is always kept cool and dry.  It collects plants from the Mediterranean and semi-arid subtropical regions like South Africa, California, Spain and Italy.  Some visitors might wonder; “Why do I have to see Mediterranean plants here in Singapore?”    That’s understandable.  But the air is always under-controlled so as to remain cool and dry for the regional plants it focused on.  Because of this we can take a comfortable stroll through the dome.

Another one is “Cloud Forest” that has completely the opposite atmosphere from “Flower Dome.”  You’ll be welcomed by the world’s tallest indoor waterfall and its splash at the entrance.  As you step into it, you’ll be drawn by a mysterious world veiled in mist.  I like this conservatory because it looks like an ancient primitive forest, which reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime.

Cloud Forest

The most outstanding garden in Gardens by the Bay would be “Supertree Glove.”  These baobab-tree-like shaped artificial trees are vertical gardens of 25 to 50 meters tall.  I took a stroll along the “Skayway,” a 128-metre long walkway that connects the two 25-metre Supertrees in the air and enjoyed the breathtaking view of the gardens.  It was quite fun but a bit scary because I felt as if I had been walking on a suspension bridge.

Supertrees and Skyway

These facilities showcase various plants for both educational and entertainment purposes.  They display the wonder of the nature in very artificial ways.  This contrast is quite Singaporean and I enjoyed it very much.

Thank you very much for your click.

にほんブログ村

Almost get lost in Singapore

I visited a good old friend of mine who is living in Singapore and enjoyed a few days off there with her.  She showed me around the city. 

Singapore is a very beautiful country as it’s called “Garden City,” but we had some problems.  Whenever she drove in newly developed area, which she was not familiar with, she got very frustrated.  She started complaining a lot about how the traffic guiding system there was useless.  I completely agree with her. 

Suppose we go to Marina Bay by car, which is a must-go place for tourists.  We’ll never get there just by following the traffic signboards.  There is no information on which neighborhood the road will take you to.  It just only the street name is printed.  And what is worse, the street names are quite confusing, for example, there are Marina avenue, Marina street, Marina road.

Beside, Singapore has a lot of one-way roads.  It’s surely effective for lessening traffic jam, but, on the contrary, we need to go an extra mile to finally get to our destination, which we can see very close by.  Once we take the wrong way, it seems that we would go away more and more from our destination.  As a result, we often ended up pulling over and asking taxi drivers for the directions which way we should go.  

Singapore is a country as small as Tokyo 23 wards.  I hear that they intentionally make street one way so that people can’t reach their destination quickly and they feel the land wider than it actually is, though I don’t know it’s true or not.  However, one thing’s for sure.  The city is planned as if it was a maze for visitors. 

↓Thank you very much for your click.

にほんブログ村

Photo: new Asia republic

Where do we come from?

Where do we come from?  What are we?  Where are we going to?

It’s a title of Paul Gauguin’s great masterpiece, but people must have thought the same thing when they were teenagers, or they do even now as an adult.  It seems to be an eternal theme of the human beings.

I still don’t have the foggiest idea about it, but I think that there might be something related to in and around the area I often visit.  Laos is one of my favorite countries and I think that the reason why I’m hooked on the nation is my nostalgia for something we Japanese already had lost.  However, there might be more to it than that.

There is a theory in cultural anthropology called “East Asian evergreen forest culture theory” that Kansuke Nakao and Koumei Sasaki advocated more than 45 years ago.  It explains that the major elements of Japanese traditional life and culture are also seen in Yunnan province and its adjacent areas, Eastern India, Nepal, Thai, Laos, Southern China and Taiwan.  In this theory, the area is called East Asian evergreen zone.

People in the zone share many customs and habits, for example, eating sticky rice, fermented foods such as natto and a kind of sushi, using urushi lacquer and growing cocoons for silk weaving.  And also, we can see some similariies in housing, clothing and more.

The more I get to know the theory, the more I’m interested in the area.  What I have seen in the villages of Laos is not just nostalgia, but it might be the things that have the same roots. 

photo: Laos Japan research & consulting

↓ Thank you very much for your click.

にほんブログ村

Would Lao textiles become a savior for the kimono industry?

The other day, NHK broadcast a documentary film titled “Lao textiles for the Japanese kimono” in the news show “World Network.” It was a well-edited story that showed the whole process how people blaze a trail for Lao silk textiles in Japan.

I’m very happy to know that Japanese people have an opportunity to get to know wonderful Lao silk textiles. It seems that the effort made by people who were involved in the Kimono Project, a Japanese governmental organization set up, to boost exporting Lao textiles into Japan is paying off.

The kimono industry is like endangered spices. Nowadays, young women seldom wear a kimono and the number of manufactures is decreasing as well. Both demand and supply have been shrinking. In this critical situation, traditional Lao textiles are highlighted as a savior for Japan.

The characteristics of Lao textiles are delicate and elaborated patterns 100% handmade. The quality is very high and it would surely satisfy Japanese consumers’ demand. And, needless to say, their lower labor prices are attractive, too.

A kimono fan said; “The patterns of Lao textiles look exotic and I think it’s interesting to coordinate them with what I already have.” The textiles form Laos have already started attracting people. I hope that Lao textiles and the Japanese kimono industry have a happy win-win relationship.

↓Thank you very much for your click.

にほんブログ村

Red Torii in Bangkok?

A friend of mine who is living in Bangkok uploaded an interesting picture on SNS. There was a tall, red and simple structure in her picture and it looked like a torii or a gate to a Japanese shrine. I wondered if there were some shrines in Bangkok. Suddenly, I started feeling very curious about this monument.

According to one theory, the torii originates in an entrance gates to Akah village, a minority group in Thailand. Then, this object may possibly be another origin of Japanese torii.

Soon, the structure turned out to be just a giant swing. It’s about 25 meters high!

It is located in front of a Buddhism and Hindu temple, Wat Suthat.

The swing was used for an annual ceremony to celebrate harvest and to express thanks for Shiva.

In the ceremony, an arch was said to be hung with six ropes from the top of the structure. Four Brahmas got into the arch and they swung it until the ropes became parallel to the ground.

It was a very dangerous swing and due to accidents, the ceremony was banned in 1932.

I think they should have equipped with safety belts.

にほんブログ村

Bangkok would be the next fashion leader in Asia?

If you think of working overseas, or your company is trying to develop a new market in Asia, I think that Bangkok is a good option, at least, as far as the fashion industry is concerned.

UNIQLO, a Japanese casual wear manufacturer has launched its flag shop in Bangkok this September, following their store opening in Singapore and Malaysia. It’s UNIQLO’s largest store in Southeast Asia. UNIQLO said that Bangkok has a lot of potential in fashion business both domestically and internationally.

Now, the population of the city is nearly 10,000,000 and an inflow of people from the countryside is still on the rise. Besides, the city has a lot of foreign tourist who enjoy shopping there. You’ll definitely find that a big market has been forming in Bangkok.

That’s just not all. What’s more attractive for Japanese people is that many Thai people are fond of the Japanese culture including fashion. There are some Japanese fashion magazines sold in Thailand and many young girls know well about Japanese fashion label names. However, unfortunately they don’t have any opportunity to buy some of them because those clothing are not available in Thailand.

It’s a great loss of business chances. I think you should go for the prospective market right away! Don’t blow it.

photos: Thai fashion 2011SS, from all about

ランキングに参加しています。よろしければクリックお願いいたします。

にほんブログ村

Minority groups in Golden Triangle

I attended a seminar on minority groups in Thailand.

Karen, Hmong, Akha, Lafu, Mien, Lisu are the 6 major groups. They are living in highland around the borders of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. They wear colorful and fashionable costume decorated with embroidery and silver. Each tribe’s costume is so different from others that you can recognize what tribes they are by their unique and characteristic attire.

I’m really into their ethnic fashion made with dexterous hand skills and what fascinates me is not just that. I think that their borderless living style is a kind of fantasy in this era of globalization and homogenization.

However, the reality is harsh.

Many people in minority groups don’t have nationality because traditionally they have been living in the mountains isolated from the plains where Thai people inhabit.

The Thai government used to ignore the minority groups but it has urged them to settle down in lower places.

As a result, they gave up their traditional slash-and-burn farming and headed for towns for jobs. Some of them were forced to work in very bad conditions and some of them had to sell their daughters for a living. And what is worse, some people went back to illegal drug business as they used to produce opium.

One of the solutions is that the government should give them nationality quickly. People need to receive equal opportunity in education, medical services, social welfare and such until they adapt to their new environment.
It’s not enough, though.


photo: from thailandsworld.com