Ceremonies welcome Laotian New Year

For two days, people gathered at a Buddhist temple in Kenneth City to celebrate the start of 2543.

[Times photo: Michael Rondou] Members of the local Laotian community celebrate the Laotian New Year on Sunday by placing their offerings of food and money in pots provided at the Kenneth City Buddhist center.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000

KENNETH CITY -- Wat Lao Phouthavannaram, the temple of Laotian Buddhists, was abuzz by mid-morning Saturday.

In a large back yard where flags fluttered, men hammered away at what resembled colorful stage sets. Inside the temple, several women squatted on a mat-strewn floor, preparing bowls of fish, fruit and vegetables for the community's three monks who would eat first. Others simply chatted or watched.

Each one, however, was anticipating the two-day festival that would mark the Laotian New Year -- 2543 -- and bring as many as 300 of their community to the two-story temple, at 5618 58th St. N, for a weekend of socializing and worship.

The new year dates to the lifetime of Siddhartha Gautama, the Enlightened One, who founded Buddhism.

Tradition says he was born of a noble family in India but abandoned his luxurious life to search for spiritual enlightenment. After wandering for several years, he found enlightenment while meditating under a fig tree and became a Buddha or awakened one. The Buddha spent the rest of his life wandering India, teaching that anyone, regardless of sex or social standing, could gain enlightenment.

The Buddha's insight about the suffering of humans, caught up in what he saw as the endless cycle of birth and death, is presented in his Four Noble Truths. These truths explain that pain exists, tell what causes it, what ends it and how to end it. The remedy for this pain is explained in the Noble Eightfold Path, which requires, among other disciplines, right speech, right action and right intention.

An important element of the new year celebration calls for pouring scented water over Wat Lao Phouthavannaram's numerous statues of Buddha. Tradition also mandates that participants pour the scented water on themselves and on each other as part of a new year ritual to ensure health, happiness and a variety of other blessings.

"The whole point of it," explained Oudon Khotpanya, who has lived in the United States for almost 30 years, "is to get the evil spirit away from us. . . . When you pour the water, you make a wish."

Saturday, some of the statues for this ritual had been placed on a specially constructed altar underneath a tree on the 1-acre property. A woman who arrived early could be seen pouring a bowl of water on the green and gold-toned statues before pouring the remainder over her head.

In a room designated for men only, dozens of statues of Buddha had been placed in toddlers' wading pools, awaiting the water ritual. Also in the crowded room were unlit candles and other Buddha statues, including an imposing gold-toned image, which temple secretary Thomas Souk said had been shipped especially from Laos.

The women have their own section. It was there, observed by a young monk, that about a dozen elderly women, dressed in white and sitting on mats, had gathered. Toward the front of the large room were two money trees covered with various denominations of U.S. currency. The money represented gifts to the temple, Mrs. Khotpanya said.

The women in white, she explained further, generally are widows or unmarried. A few are in mourning for a lost relative, and others have made a commitment to a religious life. The women, she said, are known as "white mothers."

Sitting on the temple's back porch Saturday, Mrs. Khotpanya peeled and shredded green papaya, the main ingredient for a traditional hot and spicy salad. Joining her was her 10-year-old daughter, Katelin, who wore an ankle-length Laotian outfit. Later that day, Katelin and four other girls participated in one of the religious ceremonies that typically mark the Laotian New Year.

The celebration was even more festive and better attended the next day, Souk said.

"Sunday, we had a big ceremony," he said, "and people donated prepared food and money to the temple and the monks blessed them."

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