Kamphaeng Phet Sart Thai Tradition and Banana Festival

Eat your hearts out FarmVille fans, this is the real deal, full bunches of bananas with real rosettes at a real farmers’ market, and a real one-crop festival.

Thailand’s Kamphaeng Phet Province holds their Sart Thai Buddhist Tradition and Banana Festival in September each year.

In 2009 it was during the second week of the month, and in 2010, it all revolves around the 23rd of the month and the full moon (Sart Thai is a Buddhist celebration that follows the full moon).

The Kluai Khai Fair is held to promote the species of banana for which the province is famous.

Over 200 million Baht value of bananas per year are exported from just this one province – roughly 4 million Pounds Sterling – which doesn’t sound a lot until you realise the local produce-market price for one of those full-length bunches is only 200 Baht … meaning roughly one million bunches are in the annual export figures.  Each tree crops once a year, so you can imagine how intensively they’re planted and farmed.

Bananas are one of the world’s most important food crops. Aside from the common export banana (the Cavendish), there are about 1000 other varieties of bananas. Some bananas are blue, others are orange or red, some are round, and a few are as big as your arm. In the tropics, bananas aren’t only eaten fresh, they’re barbecued, they’re deep-fried, they’re sun-dried, their flowers are used in salads – instead of lettuce, they’re even made into beer and wine.

The local banana dessert, krayasart is a wonderful, sweet, sticky, granola-like concoction made with peanuts, sesame seeds, rice, etc.  For some reason this is mostly made during the banana festival, which has competitions for the best krayasart there.

Thai bananas are far more tasty than those of most other countries, and you wouldn’t believe how many varieties there are, which is just as well, because the festival includes a banana-eating competition (race?).  I can’t envision it as being a particularly captivating spectator sport … unless they have a women’s competition too

Aside from the eating and producer competitions, there are the cookery competitions for  making of krayasat, as well as many entertainment performances provided by both traditional and modern performing arts.  Of course, being Thailand, no festival is complete without a beauty competition and pageant.  Kampaeng Phet is no exception and hosts the Miss Banana Queen pageant during the festival.

Being a rural province, the festival also brings to town a wealth of handicrafts and cottage industry products for exhibition and sales at OTOP markets, set up just for the festival.  It’s said that every temple in Kamphaeng Phet province hosts events of some description during the Kluai Khai Fair & Sart Thai Festival, I haven’t tried to test that claim – it would be impossible.

Kampaeng Phet City is a very quiet, peaceful town in the lower part of Northern Thailand forming a border province between the northern and central regions of the country. It has a famous historical park, protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, comprising the ruins of an ancient city and temple complex.

In that respect it is similar to more famous sites at Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, and Phimai, but has a distinctiveness of its own, with the archaeology and temple styles having more in common with Chiang Mai and Wieng Kum Kam far to the north of it.

Very few tourists visit Kampaeng Phet, which is a shame because it’s a great little town, with a peaceful, and almost untrodden, vast archaeological site.

More about Bananas – they are always in season, providing a continuous, year-round, source of food in developing nations. More than 400 million people depend on them as a staple food source.  In our rapidly changing world, both cultivated and wild bananas are highly threatened by climate change, deforestation, and a new banana-killing fungus. Some scientists predict that the banana industry will collapse within 5-20 years, and that many wild banana species are facing extinction

Kamphaeng Phet Sart Thai Tradition and Banana Festival

Kamphaeng Phet Sart Thai Tradition and Banana Festival

Kamphaeng Phet Sart Thai Tradition and Banana Festival

 

 

Article soure : www.gazlannathai.com

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Kamphang Phet Historical Park

Major features of Kamphang Phet Historical Park include archaeological remains of ancient sites such as Muang Chakangrao to the east of the Ping River, Muang Nakhon Chum to the west and Muang Trai Trueng some 18 kilometres from the town to the southwest. Services from the Tourist Centre are available, the centre itself being located some 5 kilometres from town on the Kamphaeng Phet-Phran Kratai route.
Chakangrao, the ancient Kamphaeng Phet town, had the same town planning concept as the old Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai, with separate zones for religious sites both within and outside of town limits. Structures are usually large and made of laterite. Religious sites on the west bank of the Ping River at Nakhon Chum are built of bricks and of smaller size.
Remains of the ancient sites within the city walls are as follows:
City Walls and Old Fortifications mark the boundary of the rectangular town area, measuring 300-700 metres wide and 2,200 metres long.
Phra Kaeo Temple (Wat Phra Kaeo) is a large royal temple in town centre near a site believed to have been a palace. The temple itself was used on important city events and had no monks in residence. Major features include the principal chedi with lion-adorned base and a round chedi with elephant-adorned base. There are also other chedis of different bases and remains of several chapels. Its boundary is marked off by laterite walls.
Second in size to Wat Phra Kaeo is Phra That Temple. Here the principal chedi is built of mixture of laterite and bricks with a 15-metre wide square base. The style is of Kamphaeng Phet architecture.
Sa Mon is the site of the palace located to the north of Wat Phra Kaeo with a square earthen wall almost touching the northern city wall. Surrounded the walls on three sides are moats with a pond in the middle. There are no standing structures remaining today.
Phra Non Temple (Wat Phra Non) is fenced in by laterite walls on four sides. At the front of the temple are a square-shaped pond, bathrooms and an ancient floating pavilion which is supported by a large laterite column. The entire column was cut out in one single piece from its source and measures 1.1 meters on each side and 6.4 meters in height, the largest such stone in the country. A lion sculpture and Sema stones (boundary stones) can still be discerned. The large Vihan which once housed the Reclining Buddha has crumbled entirely.
Phra Si Iriyabot Temple (Wat Phra Si Iriyabot) is located to the north of Wat Phra Non and has similar pond and bathroom facilities as its neighbour. Walls on the four sides are of laterite materials with an entrance also made of laterite. A Mondop structure houses Buddha statues in four postures-walking, sitting, standing and reclining in the Sukhothai artistic style. Today only the statue in the standing posture still remains.
Phra Sing Temple (Wat Phra Sing) is believed to have been constructed during both the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods. With laterite walls, it has a square-shaped principal Chedi with arches on four sides. In front of the Ubosot are ornamental lion and Naga figurines.
Chang Rop Temple (Wat Chang Rop) is a large temple situated on a high hill. Its main Chedi of Ceylonese style is in the middle of the yard but its top part is broken down. The base is adorned with 68 half-elephants between which are Bhoti-shaped designs. There are also traces of demon and female dancers' figures remaining. Apart from these temples, there are also several ancient sites on the east bank of the Ping River, including Wat Arwat Yai, Wat Kalothai and Phra Ruang Road.
Muang Nakhon Chum is an ancient town on the west bank of the Ping River. Its 2-3 metre-high earthen walls run along the waterway. It is in this area that the famous religious tablets of Kamphaeng Phet have been discovered. Within the city walls are a couple of ancient sites such as the Kamphaeng Pom Thung Sethi located on Phahonyothin Road just before entering the town. It is part of the laterite fortifications 83 metres long and 6 metres tall.
Phra Borom Temple (Wat Phra Borom) That is a temple situated in the centre of Muang Nakhon Chum featuring a Burmese-style Chedi. To the south is an Ubosot housing several Sukhothai- and Ayutthaya-style bronze Buddha statues. The Chedi itself is believed to originally have been a Sukhothai-type structure, its style having been altered during a restoration work financed by a wealthy Burmese about a century ago.
Another ancient town is Muang Trai Trueng. It was built by King Chaisiri of Chiang Rai who fled invading enemy in 1542 B.E. (circa 999). Today most of the structures are in disrepair with only ruins of Chedis and ramparts. The town is about 18 kilometres from Kamphaeng Phet on the Kamphaeng Phet-Khlong Lan road

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