Festival of the Lightboats - Lhai Heua Fai - Liebe zur Erde

LHAI HEUA FAI - The Festival of Lightboats
in Luang Prabang

is one of the most impressive festivals that I have ever seen in Asia. Already days before one can observe in the streets as people tinker with their boats: there they cut, glue, paint, decorate ... - And at first I do not realize why and what for. And the Lao people are also saying nothing about it. Only an employee of one of the agencies makes me aware of the feast and its meaning.








It begins with sacrifices around sunset in the temples - and Temples has Luang Prabang quite some. Then comes the big parade along the road of the former royal palace. Everywhere there are people who make the fire lights rising in the sky. The atmosphere of joy is great, even if some balloons end up in the palm trees:





On the road, on which otherwise night market takes place, now the different groups are processing:  temple and village communities with their lit candles dragon boats dance and wander along: a colorful, exuberant spectacle in which some especially younger Laotian men beat their drums , cymbals and other beating utensils. In their rhythm they seem to come quite out of themselves :



Many communities come in their own traditional village dress. In the front are the youngest, which seem in some cases very timid, confronted with the thousands of tourists, standing espalier who are holding the cameras against them. There follows then the dance - or music groups of the village, behind them the light boats are drawn: sometimes in loud celebratory, sometimes in calm and dignified bearing.

This festival is one of the most impressive things I've seen so far in Asia: the boats are lit by candles, carried or rolled by the men:

The procession goes through the whole of Luang Prabang to the northernmost corner of the elongated peninsula. There they proceed into the temple complex.

The tourists , who observed the spectacle from the beginning in the front, are left behind long ago. But I  had noticed that I do not see any Laotians between the observers again - where are they all around? All involved in the procession? I could not imagine this, speculated for something else and began to overtake the proceeding groups. And indeed, on the other side of the food street, where it becomes dark, here the Laos are standing and watching the procession. Together with the boat groups they then move to the Wat Xieng Thong temple, where the dragon boats are placed next to each other under tremendous noise and celebration.

Here , however, hardly any tourists is to be seen - the most of them where drawn directly to the Mekong and are waiting for the spectacle, that the large and small boats are launched into the river and float down.


In the temple monks and other sacrificer are still present, despite the many thousands of people celebrating in front of it . The full moon shines on this somehow unreal scenery, which is lit only by the boats. Speechless , I wonder at which an ancient time I got caught in with this?













Finally, people flock a long staircase down to the Mekong with offerings in their hands in the form of small floating boats made of banana leaves, candles and incense , flowers and fruits. Under prayers and good wishes these are sent down the Mekong - and with them all the worries, troubles and diseases are passed over to the river. At the same time, it is a homage to the river, and an apology for the fact that making use of his water, for making him dirty or perhaps for other sins which happened against the Spirit of the River in another form.
Overall, this is also a celebration for the Buddha, which not only marks the end of the rainy season, but also the ... - well, so exactly the man from the agency couln´t say, what. And I have not really found out more.



Then people spread in the restaurants along the river and watch the points of lights and the boats transmitted into the water. A little firework is shot and eaten extensively - Around 22.30 the peak is long gone and only  single villages boats float downstream the Mekong, which glitters in lights....