Chulakathin Merit Making CeremonyWat Phrathat Pha Ngao, Chiang Rai Province25 – 26 October 2008
The “Chulakathin Merit Making Ceremony” features merit making activities, rituals, and various forms of entertainment all on the same day. The whole event starts from sunrise to sunset (the night of Saturday, 25 October, 2008) and the kathin offerings are presented to the monks on 26 October, 2008. Accompanying activities in this event include:
Chulakathin Exhibition : Be amazed by the complete process of the production of the Chulakathin robes. The fine process starts with the picking of cotton, separating it, and spinning until the final process when it is turned from cotton into fabric. This is done overnight starting from 19.00 hours. There are also 9 amazing exhibition zones or khuang in the northern dialect.
1. Khuang Khan Toke – a typical northern-style meal.
2. Khuang for Cotton Collecting – picking of cotton to produce cotton fibre.
3. Khuang for Refining – separating the cotton seeds from the cotton
4. Khuang for Mixing - to stir the cotton to make it loose
5. Khuang for Threading – to make cotton into thread
6. Khuang for Weaving – weaving the cloth
7. Khuang for Sewing – cutting and sewing of the material into fabric
8. Khuang for Dyeing – dyeing the fabric
9. Khuang for Making Great Merit of Chulakathin – offering of kathin robes
The Merit Making Ceremony of Chulakathin
Kathin merit making is a Buddhist ritual that has to be carried out within 1 month starting from the first waning day of the eleventh lunar month until the fifteenth waxing day of the twelfth lunar month (the ritual must only be done during this period of time).
Kathin Offering Ceremony : Offering cloth or laying of robes in front of the monks to let them collect it to lay by the Sadueng frame of the robe shape. The piece of cloth would then be tailored into the form required.
An important material for the kathin ceremony is the “kathin cloth”. The kathin ceremony has to be completed within a specific period. In the past, cloth was scarce and it had to be woven from cotton. The long process started from the spinning of cotton, putting it into a loom, weaving, cutting, and sewing till it became a piece of cloth to be offered as a kathin cloth. This tradition has been inherited as a part of Thai culture for generations.
Chulakathin is a mini kathin : With the limited time, the ceremony has to be carried out as quickly as possible; thus, it has to be completed within a day. The ceremony begins with spinning the cotton to make thread until sewing it into a robe and offering it to the monks.
The preparation of the Chulakathin ceremony begins immediately after midnight.
- Collecting cotton for weaving; the picker must be a virgin girl that signifies the purity of the kathin cloth, which is made of cotton.
- Using the collected cotton to be spun and made into thread, ready for weaving. The material that would be used for spinning and weaving has to be of various sets to ensure the production of the 3 main pieces of the robes or at least one long robe to be able to carry out the ceremony within a day.
- Cutting the woven material in to pieces as designed. It is then tightened on the Sadueng wood frame and the pieces are stitched together as a monk’s robe.
- Dyeing the material with natural dyes from plants as a robe’s colour should be. At present, ready-made colour is used.
- Drying and arranging it into a set is the last step and then it is ready for the ceremony. The most important step in the preparation is having sufficient tools and artisans to carry out the production process and finishing it in time.
Chulakathin Offering Ceremony : The person who is the host of the ceremony has to search for a suitable temple. The temple must have at least 5 monks residing. These monks have to be the ones staying in the temple during the 3-month Buddhist rains retreat. The devotee has to do the following preparation:
- Booking the kathin is to inform the abbot of the temple the intention of carrying out the kathin ceremony in that temple. Once the booking is made, the temple would not accept another host unless there is a condition that the initial host is willing to have someone else join as a co-host.
- The host has to prepare all the necessary raw materials and other accessories needed in the ceremony before the process of production begins. Skilled weavers are normally invited to undertake the weaving process. Once getting the small pieces of the material, they would be stitched together as a robe. It would then be dyed and ironed as the final process.
- Offering of the Chulakathin robe – the auspicious day for the ceremony normally falls on the fifteenth waxing day of the twelfth lunar month. The ceremony is like a general kathin offering in that once all ceremonial accessories are completed, participants would bring them into the temple. They would recite the words of offering to the monks in chorus, and the monks would receive the robe, recite prayers for the spirits of the deceased ancestors, and conclude the ceremony.
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