Candle festival

I have decided that beauty is cultural.

29 July was the start of the Candle Festival in Ubon Ratchathani. For three months in the planting season (a period that some call Buddhist Lent), Buddhist monks in Thailand are not allowed to stay outside the temple. The rationale is that they might step on the newly planted seedlings and destroy the the crop. They instead use this time to study and to practise abstinence.


In the days before electric light, this time of study and contemplation was illuminated by candles. There has grown up a tradition therefore, of giving candles to the temples during this period. Most of the candles sold for giving to the monks are carved with flowers and other intricate patterns. The tradition of carving candles has now become so elaborate, that the candles on displayed at the candle festival are now 20 foot high sculptures on floats portraying stories from the Buddhist tradition.

The candles are now so large that wax alone cannot hold their weight or form. The skeleton of the figures is steel wire. They are then fleshed out with coconut husks and plaster. The rough forms are then coated in wax, and the wax is carved. From start to finish, the process takes around 3 months to complete. The work is done not by the monks, but by volunteers from the community who have an affection for the temple.


I am able to appreciate the intricacies of the wax carvings, but buddhism is not my religion. I appreciate the hard work that goes into creating these images, but the images are for me quite empty. I do not know and do not understand the stories they portray and therefore are not moved by them in the same way that someone brought up with the same stories might be.