THE TRADITIONAL VALUES OF THE ASCENDING PANOOMSAWAI MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE PEOPLE IN SAWAI SUB-DISTRICT MUANGSURIN DISTRICT SURIN PROVINCE

Abstract

The topic of the research is “Studying the Traditional Values of Ascending PanoomSawai Mountain Festival and its Influence on the Way of Life of People in Sawai Sub District  MuangSusinDistrictSurin Province” The research has three objectives namely:1.To study the basic methods of the Sawai sub-district community.2.To study the traditions of making merit through the Ascending Sawai Mountain Festival of Sawai sub-district community.3.To analyze the traditional methods and values of making merit through the Ascending Sawai Mountain Festival and making merit in Buddhism. The result of the research found that: 1. Sawai sub-district has a long history and has  archaeological sites namely the Sawaimountain places in Sawai sub-district and Nabua sub-district.  This is an annual event on the 1st day of the waxing moon of the 5th lunar month for 3 days every year. Ascending Sawai mountain festival is an ancient tradition that harmoniously weaves together Buddhist and Hindu teachings. 2. This festival is an ancient belief of 
the people in Surin that has been a practice for a long time. This festival is done on the fifth lunar month, the major break of 7 days (from the first to the seventh day of the waning moon of the fifth lunar month). People have formed this belief from the ancient times when it stated that Sawai Mountain is a place for pilgrimage and there are many holy things or spirits on the top of 
mountain. People chant and pay homage at the village or at the monastery for 3 days. People take bone ash of ancestor including bone ash of monks who passed away (the making of merits for the dead people). During Songkran Festival people sprinkle scented water on the Buddha Image to show respect to elders. They also pour scented water from fourteen day of the waning moon of the fifth lunar month. There is a folklore of Thailand that speaks on the value to community is the opportunity to create unity within the community, so as to join the acquire merits, meet each other and enjoy entertaining events.  3. Ascending Sawai Mountain Festival is a conservative tradition which preserves the traditions for generations and helps others learn their identity and traditions, their culture of the nation, and reflect on the prosperity of the country. For Surin people, they believe that ascending Sawai Mountain is an important festival of Khmer, who has Thai nationality. This festival is the happy day that they have a chance to meet family, pay homage to the ancestors and carrying sand to temple and forming sand pagodas, this idea is a good method of developing the monastery of ancient time in Thai society.