As I stood in the Maha Buddha Gaya Pagoda, I could hear the clear voice of an old woman praying from the pagoda's south end. It was not strange for me for I grew up inside Burma, but it was a little surprising, for though I stood in Thailand the prayer I heard was that of an elder Mon/Burmese. 
In my community in Burma, our elders offer food to Lord Buddha and monks in the morning, then look for flowers, rest at lunch time and spend the rest of the afternoon making flower rings (Mon name). In the evening, they go to monasteries and pray. Standing there, I already knew what the old woman was doing. When I spoke with her, she told me she prays every day, unless she is sick. With ten others she prays everyday and makes an exception only four days a month.
I stood in a temple in Wangka, an ethnic Mon community that hugs the perimeter of a small inlet on Lake Vajiralongkorn, tucked high up in northwestern Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. Across the inlet is the town of Sangkhlaburi near Three Pagodas Pass, twenty minutes to the east is Burma, an area that has seen centuries of Burmese and Mon crisscrossing over the border area. Five hours to the northwest is Bangkok.
The Wangka community was founded by the prominent Abbot Uttama in 1949 to help the Mon people who had been displaced by armed conflict and the appalling human rights conditions. They also came to Thailand to study in Thai schools. Wangka connects to Sangkhlaburi via the longest handmade wooden bridge in Thailand, the village bridge can be seen as a metaphor that is the lifeline for the Mon people. Though U Uttama passed away in October 2006, Wangka's population is now about 8,000.
A large sign-board at the gate of the village bears the words "Mon cultural village" in Thai script. Likewise, street names and other announcements are written in Thai. Although cultural images are not obviously visible on normal days in Wangka, the beat of the village life can be seen everywhere on religious days as people come and go wearing the traditional Mon dress in colors of red and white. Fridays also are important for on this day schoolchildren are permitted to shed their uniforms for their traditional clothes, and in the morning you can see more than 2,000 youngsters making their way into the classroom. Wangka is, in other words, is the place where Thailand-born-Mons and Burma-born-Mons come together.
A religious connection
Like Mon people in Burma, Wangka celebrates "Bor Kamot-Kaban." The festival is unique to Mon people, who have been holding it for at least five hundred years. The festival began in 1019-1020 in the Buddhist era. It is held to commemorate the rule of the Mon king Dhama Zaydi, who sent monks on the ships Seittara Duta and Rama Duta to develop their religious thinking in Sri Lanka. When the monks did not return, the king built a temporary ship of bamboo and paper, loaded them with one thousand offerings, and sent them a sail into the ocean, accompanied by prayers from the Mon people. Soon after Rama Duta was safely home in port and the Mon have been celebrating the day ever since. In Wangka, it was celebrated for the (fifteenth time?) on 14 September 2008.
The festival is traditionally celebrated in the monastery or near the pagoda the day before the full moon. Young boys go into the forest to cut bamboo, while young girls collect flowers and fragrant items. Community elders guide the youth and help them make umbrellas and traditional things. The monastery or pagoda is crowded with the young and old until a boat has been constructed of bamboo and ornaments prepared for its adornment. In spite of heavy rain on the traditional day, people of Wangka build an eight foot wide, eighteen foot long and ten foot tall ship in front of the pagoda. Hundreds of poles, flags, flowers and other offerings were placed on the ship as Thailand born Mons and Burma born Mons came together to exchange ideas, prayers and visions.
A gathering place
In the past, villagers worked in their gardens, grew rice, and other food staples. Today, people, young and old struggle to find work and migrate to the cities or go abroad. Few can return to their village to participate in their traditional festivals, said Mi Alanyar, who helped to organize Wangka's Bor Kamot-Kaban. This makes the festival in Thailand all the more important. "It's the time for Mons from all over to make 'merit' together. This year young people participated in the ceremonies more than ever before."
"Bor Kamot-Kaban' ceremony used to be held in Ban Kadi Mon village, near Bangkok," said Nai Kay Thit, the owner of a Bangkok-based tour company. "But now, this ceremony is held only in Wangka. This kind of Mon traditional ceremony is fading out in Thailand, but Mon people in Burma continue to hold it."
"I was born in Wangka. Everyone speaks the Mon language because of efforts by U Uttama. Mons born in this village do not identify as Thai Mons, though they are not from Burma. They identify as Wangka Mons," said Nai Sein Aung, 44, who is a member of Wangka's village administration.
"We attract visitors with our Bor Kamot-Kaban ceremony. It is a significant ceremony in Thailand, for it is held nowhere else. We are very pleased to hold this unique ceremony. In the future, we would also like to show Nyaung Yay Thoum Pwe, the festival for water consecrated and poured around a banyan tree. We would also like to hold the Nivan Zay Pwe festival, which is a festival of free food held as a communal celebration," continued Nai Sein Aung. "Neither of these festivals is seen in Thailand. We had many visitors and participants in Bor Kamo-Kaban this year. The big aim is to maintain our culture."
Building hope
Ships for Kor Kamot-Kaban are built with bamboo, colored paper, and wood. In some villages, the ship is built on wheels so that it can travel through the community, receiving donations. In other places, the ship is built on chairs and receives offering in the pagoda, but never sails. In most villages, the ships are built to float and after receiving offerings, the ships are set a sail down rivers or into lakes and oceans.
The festival is held before dawn when monks begin the ceremony by reading scripture near the ship, then offerings and prayers are received and given. In Wangka, I saw a group of boys bring huge colorful hot air balloons to the temple in trucks, then release them into the sky with the tails of small lanterns and fireworks streaming behind. In Wangka, the ship was set a sail in Lake Vajiralongkorn the next day.
All of Sangkhlaburi's monasteries, Thai and Mon alike, are invited to Wangka's festival every year. They receive offerings of food, honey and sweets, among others. I saw the new abbot, U Maha Suchat, move around the pagoda throughout the day and night until the ceremony was over.
Monks and some scholars can explain away the details of the tradition, but most people understand the festival as a time to make merit and earn some good luck. Most Mon families in Burma have at least one close relative working abroad so offering food on the ship is intended for the loved ones who work away from the family. Old tradition meets the new reality of life and the hope is that family members just like Rama Duta, will return home safely one day. In Thailand, as in Burma, the festival is a familial and communal event, an expression of Buddhist beliefs throughout cultural life. For the Wangka Mon people, it is reaching over to live with our Mon people in Burma, to show solidarity and unity, between Mons separated by time, the border, and human events.
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