Buffalos take centre stage at Songkran ceremony in Uthai Thani
Visitors have been lining up at a tourist attraction in Uthai Thani province for a traditional water-pouring ceremony in which three white buffaloes are the main attraction.
Local residents as well as tourists visiting Big Buffalo Station in the province’s Sawang Arom district said they were surprised to see the buffaloes as the object of respect in the traditional water-pouring ceremony known in Thai as “Rot Nam Dam Hua”.
“This is the first time in my life that I saw a Rot Nam Dam Hua ceremony for buffaloes,” said a 70-year-old visitor to Big Buffalo Station on Friday.
The ceremony is traditionally performed by pouring scented water onto the hands of elders to show gratitude and request a blessing. It has also been performed on elephants, an animal considered a national symbol of historical importance, but visitors said they had never seen it performed on buffaloes.
Big Buffalo Station, known as Manaw Café by Thais, is a farm and tourist attraction. It raises buffalos and currently has more than 100, which it sells and rents to local farmers and breeders.
The farm has won several national level livestock competitions and is a proud owner of a trio of albino buffaloes worth more than 20 million baht.
The three albino buffaloes – Mangkorn Fah, Yogurt, and Thong Thae – were brought out so that visitors could pour water on them.
“The buffalo is a symbol of Uthai Thani and is considered a benefactor of Thai farmers,” said Pawich Chimphlee, owner of Big Buffalo Station.
They add an important economic value to agriculture in Uthai Thani, he said, adding that Thai farmers have been using buffalos to plow rice paddy for centuries.
