Fresh crop of mor lam

The Jim Thompson Farm in Korat is resonating with exhilarating mor lam music until January 13 for the annual agriculture-and-art tour. In fact the culture of the Northeast has come to dominate the proceedings, easing aside the conceptual art of previous years.
“Sudsanan Dan Isaan” (“Terminally Happy in the Land of Isaan”) is the theme, and the focus is on the gentle, lilting fun of mor lam and the local wisdom and architecture it joins as part of the regional heritage.
The Jim Thompson silk firm has for years been restoring Korat-style houses at its farm and has recently begun embracing the folk music, complete with mor lam contests. The one last month drew participants from more than 20 schools in the Northeast with Bt500,000 worth of prizes.
Chaweewan Dumnern, Thailand’s queen of mor lam and a National Artist in the performing arts, led a panel of judges and performed for the students along with Banyen Rakkaen, the country’s hottest mor lam star.
Chutima Dumsuwan of Jim Thompson says the farm has the young generation in mind when it sets out plans for conserving northeastern culture. The Jim Thompson Farm Sud Sanan Dan Isaan music competition borrows the term sud sanan from khaen players, she says. The bamboo reed-pipe uses a melodic line by that name – sud means “terminating” and sanan “distress”, so it conveys an end to all troubles and sorrows.
Jim Thompson also plans to open a mor lam museum soon, but in the meantime, the annual Art on the Farm fathering is dedicated to the folk music, and art plays its usual edifying role.
There’s a new Hor Tri – a traditional Isaan tripitaka house – where Australian musicologist John Garzoli and Thailand’s Tiger Dragon Produc-tions have installed “Lai Sudsanan: Khaen”. Dozens of the instruments hang from the ceiling, while portraits of the most venerated mor lam players line the walls. A television set carries a 12-minute documentary in which the masters perform and are interviewed.
Channachai Ketsrirat’s installation “Sustainable Living” celebrates how people in Isaan can turn any household item into a musical instrument. Out in a rice field on the farm he’s coiled steel into a huge sai – a bamboo fish trap – and decorated it with a colourful silk fringe.
Intanong Chinnawong’s giant sculpture “Extreme” catches the rhythm of a man using a fishing net woven from bamboo. And Jaruwan Muangkhoa’s “Wear Mask of the Water Ghost; Make Merit for Cows and Buffalo” evokes the region’s famous spirit festival, Phi Khon Nam, and its ceremony in which farmers beg their buffalo to forgive them for inflicting such hard labour.
Prin Tanunchaibutra’s “Home” sculptures – made with silk, bamboo, straw and discarded cocoons – were inspired by the form and shape of Isaan’s tung flags, seen at religious and cultural ceremonies like Bun koon-larn.
And Watanya Siriwan’s “Lanna Looking at Isaan” relates how local people pass on traditional beliefs through murals painted in temples’ sim (ordination) halls.

GREEN LIVING
Join an Art on the Farm tour anytime until January 13, daily from 9am to 5pm.
Tickets on weekdays cost Bt120 (Bt80 for children) and on weekends Bt140 (Bt100 for children).
Find out more at (02) 762 2566 or (085) 660 7336 or www.JimThompsonFarm.com.