Mekong River residents hold good luck rite

14 Mar 2011

People living in a Thai community beside the Mekong River have held a ceremony to perk up its health. Residents living near northeastern Thailand’s Loei Province performed the ceremony in the hope of restoring the waterway to its past glories.

Villagers in the Chiang Khan District of the province have traditionally earned their living from the river with fishing and, in the dry season, cultivation of vegetables and produce. The strength of the waters has receded in recent years and villagers say it has a sick spirit.

Last Friday, local residents performed a call the spirit (riak kwan) ceremony to try and cast out evil spirits and cure the spirit of the Mekong River. The group elders gathered in a circle around a banana leaf, which had been decorated with lucky signs, and then chanted to the river’s spirit urging it to heal itself.

With construction of dams on the upper reaches of one of the world’s longest waterways, the much reduced flow of water in effect brings the dry season a lot earlier in the year than in historic times. Construction of Laos’s Xayaburi Dam is due to begin this month, despite the fact activists say no proper environmental affects study has been conducted.

Residents say the 100 billion Baht dam will impact on them more than previous ones as it is close to their source of livelihood. The dam is a joint Lao government-Thai construction firm project to supply electricity to Thailand, which many detractors have said it does not even need.

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