Keeping the Culture Alive : Kids Make Traditional Offerings at Temple to Mark Thai Holidays

Friday was another hot and dry summer day in Los Angeles. But at the Wat Thai Buddhist temple in North Hollywood, nearly 200 boys and girls celebrated the beginning of the rainy season.

After donning traditional silk and cotton Thai dress and performing traditional dances, the brightly adorned children marched in a procession around the temple in a ritual known in the Thai language as Hae-tian Kao-pancha.

Then, carrying out an ancient Thai custom, they presented the temple’s monks with orange robes and candles. In a decidedly modern American twist, the offerings also included Aqua-Fresh toothpaste and Zest soap.

Like many of the activities at the temple on Coldwater Canyon Avenue, the ceremony was part of a continuing effort to keep the culture alive among Thai American children ages 4 to 15.

During the summer, the temple offers children daily classes in Thai art, history, calligraphy, literature and traditional dances and music.

The classes are taught by 21 teachers who come to the U.S. each year as part of an exchange program with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said Sumana Barua, a monk at Wat Thai.

Although the teachers will return home to Thailand at the end of the summer, he said, the center continues to hold weekend classes during the school year.

“They bring a part of Thailand with them,” said Rawin Singhapanich, 13, of Mission Hills.

“It’s a lot better than staying in the house and watching television,” added Melissa Choticamchorn, who is of Thai and Russian-Yugoslavian descent.

Parents want their children “to learn about their heritage and preserve it for future generations,” Barua said. At the temple, “they are taught Thai culture and Thai language,” not to mention “respect toward elders and the monks,” he said.

The religious ceremony at the temple Friday centered around Asalaha-buja and Kao-pancha, Thai holidays that each year mark the start of the rainy season there.

As Angel Ampas, 13, of Sun Valley explained, the Buddhist monks would travel throughout the year. When the rains came, however, they would return to the temples to refrain from damaging crops or harming animals by walking in the mud. The offerings helped them get through three months of rain, she said.

The procession was divided into groups of children celebrating three Thai institutions--the nation, religion and the monarchy.

“This will give kids more knowledge about Thailand and their ways,” said one teacher, Pornsawan Kamwang, 21, from Bangkok. The kids see it slightly differently. As one 13-year-old put it: “Thai culture is the way our parents used to live.”