PING RIVER (Thai: แม่น้ำปิง, Maenam Ping), Chiang Mai, Thailand

Frog “reintroduced” back into the river by celebrants. Photo by Derek Irland

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This essay was originally posted to National Geographic's Water Currents blog on February 16, 2015.

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On the night of the twelfth lunar month during the full moon at the end of the rainy season, communities gather along my banks to pay homage to me, and my water spirits. They thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha (พระแม่คงคา), which is the Thai form of Ganga, the Hindu goddess of the holy Ganges River, India. It is also a way to beg forgiveness for polluting and abusing me during the past year.

Krathong with incense and flag floating in the Maenam Ping. Photo by Derek Irland

This festival of lights is called Loy Krathong (ลอยกระทง). The name is translated as “to float a basket,” and refers to the tradition of making krathong or buoyant, banana stem sculptures that are decorated with folded banana leaves and contain flowers, incense, candles, and coins (an offering to the river spirits). These sculptural offerings are floated on my moist skin in the evening forming a candle-lit parade dancing downstream. Lights hanging from trees and buildings, and a multitude of hot-air lanterns rising up into the night sky reflect on my body, creating a myriad of new constellations.

Full moon with ascending lanterns. Photo by Derek Irland

Sounds: Splashing of young boys diving into the water to find coins within the loy kratongs, and the loud cracking from fireworks. Sights: Thousands of flickering lights, in the air and on my surface. Smells: Rich aromas of spicy Thai food. Touch: Hands feeling my wetness releasing their offerings into me.

Eels offered to the river.

Boy looking for coins in a krathong.

Banana stalks and bread kratongs are biodegradable or eaten by fish, but modern ones are sometimes made of Styrofoam, which pollute my body and may take up to a million years to decompose! There is already enough trash clogging my waterway.

Riverside trash.

The 6,000-year history behind the festival is complex, and Thais celebrate for many reasons. The main rice harvest season has ended and it’s time to thank me for a year’s worth of abundance, as well as an apology for not taking care of me and other waterways during the past year. It is a time of celebration, fun, reflection, and great spirituality. Loy Krathong incorporates beliefs from different religions, including elements from ancient Brahman doctrines and more modern Buddhist ideas. Numerous Buddhist temples along my shores fill with bright orange-robed monks who chant to me as I flow by.

Banana-leaf krathong.

The krathong’s meandering downstream symbolizes letting go of negativity and a time of optimism for the year to come. Participants ask water spirits to sail away their troubles in their krathongs. Other traditions set eels, snails, frogs, and turtles free to live within my body.

Fishing net downstream from Chiang Mai. Photo by Derek Irland

I am grateful for this brief time of the Loy Krathong ceremony, which only happens for a few days once a year. After I leave the rural area outside Chiang Mai, I am on my way to busy, bustling, metropolitan Bangkok.

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