Strange tale of a village sacrificing a buffalo, drinking its blood (with a little whisky...) through bamboo pipes, in an animist rite to stay on friendly terms with the gods. Everyone happy. Quite dramatically shows what we were like before religion, culture, almost before language, certainly before history : that's what we were like then and that is what we are still like today, underneath the veneer.
And by the way, don't think this is just some ancient ritual - this happens every year in a village lost up in the mountains.
What the artist Sornchai Phongsa is trying to do - and succeeding amazingly - is show how these primitive people, who are our ancestors, negotiated with what they thought were the gods everywhere present who could step on them or help them on their way.
And the other thing the artist is trying to show is how these same folk dealt with the arrival of Buddha in their region, because Buddha is about one God only and He isn't here all around us, He's up there in some kind of happy heaven.
He certainly succeeded on his first objective and we all had a pretty good understanding of what it must have been like, that party in the village sacrificing the buffalo, drinking its blood and of course having a good time with local Thai whiskey.
Actually just a point of detail but the meat we ate was raw, uncooked, and we could not eat until the candles lit at the outset of the ceremony had burnt down fully, because in that time the gods were supposed to take what they wanted first.
*On May 20, DOGMA YARD
opens at Gallery Seescape*
18.00 - Gallery Seescape invites you to see the exhibition “Dogma yard” by Thai contemporary artist Sornchai Pongsa. His art connects history, beliefs, religion, ghosts, spirits and human social behavior.
Explore a negotiating environment where past behavior is connected to the present. To find reasons for the conflict between the Buddha and the ghost.
https://www.facebook.com/events/958984688565592
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Keep it clean, keep it lean