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Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Tuesday 08 April 2014 12:01 BST

Tai Yai boys are carried in a procession by their relatives during the Poy Sang Long Festival in Mae Hong Son

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

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1/10In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

A Tai Yai boy poses for a portrait in Mae Hong Son

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

Young boys aged between 7 and 14 are ordained as novices to learn the Buddhist doctrines. It's believed that they will gain merit for their parents by ordaining

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

Poy Sang Long is a Buddhist novice ordination ceremony of the Shan people or Tai Yai, an ethnic group of Shan State in Myanmar and northern Thailand

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

On the first day of the festival, the boys have their heads shaved and are anointed with turmeric and dressed up in the colours of a Thai Yai prince, with traditional accessories: long white socks, plenty of jewellery, a headcloth decorated with fresh flowers, a golden umbrella and heavy face make-up. They are then announced to the guardian spirit of the town and taken around the temples

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

Makeup is put on a Tai Yai boy before the ceremony at Wat Don Chedi during the Poy Sang Long festival in Mae Hong Son

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

Poy Sang Long is the most famous and colourful festival in Mae Hong Son, held over the first weekend of April, which celebrates the ordination into the monkhood, for the duration of the schools’ long vacation

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

A Tai Yai boy wakes before dawn to be dressed and made up for the days festivities in Mae Hong Son

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

Tai Yai boys are carried in a procession by their relatives during the Poy Sang Long Festival in Mae Hong Son

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

Tai Yai boys pray at Wat Don Chedi during the Poy Sang Long Festival in Mae Hong Son

In pictures: Buddhist ordination festival in Thailand

Thailand

The second day of the festival brings general merry-making and a spectacular parade, headed by a drummer and a richly decorated riderless horse, which is believed to carry the town’s guardian spirit. The boys, still in their finery, are each carried on the shoulders of a chaperone, accompanied by musicians and bearers of traditional offerings. In the evening, the novices tuck into a sumptuous meal, waited on by their parents and relatives, before the ordination ceremony in the temple on the third day

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