Even the clouds have names in holy northeast Thailand
A world away from Bangkok's suffocating crowds and traffic jams, northeast Thailand offers a breathtaking trek through waterfalls to national parks perched atop hills, and a "Stonehenge" of natural rock formations which are eerie reminders of Thailand's past. The Jakarta Post reporter Ati Nurbaiti visited three Thai provinces in the northeast and one near Bangkok in early August at the invitation of the Royal Embassy of Thailand in Jakarta. A related article will appear Sunday.
UDON THANI, Thailand (JP): The helicopter from Thailand's Royal Border Patrol Police left low lying forest and approached a slope, hovering over the wide plain called The Mountain of the Bell in the Phu Kraduong National Park.
Local legend in Loei province is that one can hear the clanging of the "bell", the shape of the hill, on holy days.
The national park, a sanctuary for wild elephants, bird species, plants and amiable deer which think the humans there are part of the natural surroundings, is a popular site for trekking and camping.
It is one of just a few national parks in Thailand's northeast region known as Isan.
Visitors do not usually come by helicopter. Loei, 520 kilometers from Bangkok, can be reached by train from the capital, continued with a five-kilometer bus ride to the park site.
The popular route is to walk from the final bus stop at the park office, trekking uphill past stunning scenery for some five hours to the 1,325-meter-high hill. Local porters can carry luggage.
From the top of the hill, another four-kilometer walk leads to the office for renting bungalows or tents.
"I climbed up here 30 years ago," declared Thai envoy to Indonesia, Somphand Kokilanon, with a satisfied grin. The climb this time had nearly been canceled due to bad weather.
The park was quiet as it is closed during the rainy season. A pickup carried a handful of visitors wailing along an endless bumpy road, stopping at a crevice with comfortable wide stones overlooking a green and misty valley.
"This is lovely for watching the sunrise and sunset," said His Excellency as he maneuvered his videocamera.
The stones also have names here in this spiritual haven; the wide stone is called Pha Lom Sak.
The informational brochure states even the clouds have their own title -- "Pha Yiap Mek, cotton-like clouds (suggesting) a misty world of shadowy figures". It seems everything in sight is considered a beloved inhabitant of the sanctuary.
Unfortunately the stop was too short to check in person photographs at the park office purported to show deep blue waters framed by cliffs, its cavernous caves and elephants romping in the grounds.
Loei is just one of several of the northeast's 18 provinces striving to promote its natural wonders.
Our host took us to a few of these places from Udon Thani, one of the largest provinces with a population of one million. It can be reached from Bangkok by a one-hour flight.
Tranquil long stretches of road from Udon Thani, lined by tall wooden homes built on stilts, a few lively markets and rice fields -- scenery familiar to Indonesians -- leads to many hidden surprises. One is the Phu Phra Bat Historical Park, some 68 kilometers northwest of Udon Thani.
Rocks
Sixteen million years ago, our guide explained, today's peaceful religious sanctuary was a river, evidenced by still discernible water-flow markings throughout the site.
Monks in search of meditation sites in the 1920s discovered the unusual rock formations and caves, their walls adorned with hand paintings of figures and animals.
Buddhist followers added their own stone carvings and sculptures of Buddhist images in and around the caves and their structures.
Each structure and cave is named; one of them, the Ku Nang Usa, is surrounded with eight boundary stones. It brings Britain's Stonehenge to mind, even though the outer stones of the Thai stone structure are smaller.
Every year monks and other disciples, among an annual average of 45,000 Thais and a few thousand foreigners, come to pray at Phu Phra Bat, or the "mountain of the Buddha footprints."
A stroll of less than 30 minutes is rewarded by a breathtaking view of a huge rock structure, followed by others in strange shapes around the site, with large upper, wide forms providing shade for meditators.
Headless statues are ugly evidence of history's plundering but the site is now protected by the Thai Fine Arts Department.
Toilet find
The park is among 200 archaeological sites found in Udon Thani and surrounding areas. Institutions protect some of them, including the Phu Phra Bat park and Ban Chiang village, declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO.
Ban Chiang's 2,000-year-old bronze culture is believed to be older than those found in Mesopotamia and China.
At least one site, Umphor Tabor in Nhong Khai province, is relatively new, and was discovered by chance.
Kohk Khen villager Samarn Srisawadi struck something hard as he shoveled to build a new toilet several years ago. His find included household objects and utensils thought to be even older than those in Ban Chiang.
Villagers, not knowing the value of the find, began selling off the items for sums roughly equal to the cost of building a new latrine.
Archeologists have tried to put a stop to this.
"We have asked the owner of this house not to sell them," archeologist Sitthiporn said.
Ban Chiang museum is about 56 kilometers to the east of Udon Thani. It reveals artifacts of the earliest population existing around 5,600 years ago, and has led scientists to surmise their lifestyle was similar to that surviving in subsistence economies in several parts of today's rural Thailand.
The findings also confirmed links of the northeast region to Laos, just across Udon Thani. It is believed a group of Laos villagers crossed the Mae Khong river to escape political turmoil, eventually settling in what is today known as Ban Chiang.
Traditional pottery is famous here, and locals produce knockoffs of ancient red spiral pieces for nearby souvenir shops.
The museum not only displays relics of the past as "we consider it a holy place", said an official of the local tourism authority.
An urn holding customary bright yellow flowers stands near the entrance. Upstairs, a skeleton replica lies staring upward at the soft light outside the exhibition room.
I clicked my camera to shoot the skeleton tableau, but repeatedly failed. I thought it was because of the lack of light, but there was no problem with the autofocus when I turned my camera on other objects. A few more attempts to capture the camera-shy skeleton were also in vain.
In place of the detached gaze of a camera held by a mindless, rather exhausted visitor, perhaps the spirits here were demanding respect and more efforts to fathom the sacred past of Thailand, however much it needs tourist dollars today.