The dragon worships the buddha liminality, community, centre and periphery in a borderland

Can we use a single event, the naga fireballs, as an anthropological lens to discuss liminality both at a spatial and ideological level?. This thesis is about using the naga fireballs a

LIMINALITY, CENTRE AND PERIPHERY IN A

BORDERLAND

JAY CHEONG HAN WEN

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

2011

THE DRAGON WORSHIPS THE BUDDHA: COMMUNITY,

LIMINALITY, CENTRE AND PERIPHERY IN A

BORDERLAND

JAY CHEONG HAN WEN (B.A [Hons], NUS)

A THESIS SUBMITTED

FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

2011

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my friends and my graduate classmates – both local and foreign – for their support and for allowing me to observe their lived experiences, and for agreeing to answer my many questions; in particular, to local folks such as Phi Daeng, Paa X and many others who live

in the wonderful land of the naga I am also grateful for the relentless guidance and care of my

supervisor, Dr Irving Johnson, as well as the support of other academics such as A/P Goh Beng Lan, Dr Pattana Kitiarsa, Dr Benjamin Wong, Dr Michael Montesano and Dr Stan Tan Boon

Hwee; I am forever indebted to them in ways more than academia would have been able to define I am greatly indebted to my parents and siblings for their support and concern, and lastly,

to the new friendships forged and the unwavering ‘support’ of Beer Singha, thank you

Table of Contents

Declaration Page i

Acknowledgements ii

Table of Contents iii

Summary iv

Chapter 1 1

Chapter 2 21

Chapter 3 40

Chapter 4 50

Chapter 5 64

Bibliography 71

Appendix 1A 83

Appendix 1B 87

Summary

My thesis is a modest attempt not to uncover the causes of strange naga fireballs that occur at

Phon Phisai every year almost with clockwork precision; it is a brief ethnographic write-up of the lives behind these fireballs I attempt to illuminate the every-day happenings, the perspectives of the locals of Phon Phisai, the various competing discourses and communal

politics, the ideas that flow from place to place, and the flexibility of identities vis-à-vis charting

a middle ground between three categories of theoretical considerations Can we use a single

event, the naga fireballs, as an anthropological lens to discuss liminality both at a spatial and

ideological level? My stories about this event, about the people of Phon Phisai will answer this central theoretical consideration

Chapter One – Introduction

My Naga adventure started with a brief encounter with the critically acclaimed movie “sip haa

kham duen sip et” (Mekong Full Moon Party) back in 2004 I was not only moved by the emotive performances of the actors, I was also in awe of these mysterious fireballs After some brief research and clarification, I realized that these fireballs were empirically real In other words, there was no lack of eyewitness accounts of these peculiar pinkish balls that would rise

from the dark Mekong waters along the Nong Khai province at various positions To add fuel to

fire, these fireballs will rise only at the awk pan saa, which is the end of the Buddhist Lent every

year This amazement had indeed set in my heart an incepting fire – the urge to find out more about these enigmatic fireballs

This thesis is about using the naga fireballs as a social event with religious and cultural connotations to trace the multiple meanings and significances of everyday life in a small town of

Phon Phisai in Northeast Thailand Theoretically, I will be using Victor Turner’s theoretical concept of liminality as a framework to understand liminal events within liminal spaces – in particular a borderland such as Phon Phisai that is situated at the crossroad of Thailand and Laos

In addition, the significance of this event hinges on the element of mystique within the borderland, whereby older renditions of the event (by older generations), which might be non-consequential and trivial, are being treated in modern terms of local politics and tourism For

many, the mystique also lies in the fact that the actual cause of the fireballs are not known for certain; till today the reasons behind the emergence of these naga fireballs are still on the debate table

There are three central questions to this thesis Can we use the naga fireballs as an

anthropological lens to understand larger issues of liminality and the purported “marginalization”

of the Isaan region? Can the concept of liminality be used in tandem with community and

centre/periphery to explain the underlying processes of the naga fireballs? More importantly,

why do the naga fireballs matter? I argue that the naga fireballs matter because they can be used

as unique anthropological lens to understand liminality at both spatial and ideological plane, as well as gain a deeper level of understanding of Phon Phisai because of its added “mystical”

dimension They are important because they provide the essential “moment” of liminality with

an even deeper level of uncertainty because people are perennially second-guessing the

authenticity of the fireballs In other words, it creates liminality, within liminality

These sacred fireballs, locally known as bang fay phaya nak, occur annually along parts of the Mekong River that run along Northeastern Thailand (commonly known as the Isaan region) and

the People’s Democratic Republic of Lao (or Laos) These mysterious fireballs rise from the

Mekong River into the air above the water surface They are smokeless and soundless; rising 20

to 30 metres in a straight line to the air then disappear without a trace Their sizes vary from a thumb-size to an egg size The number of fireballs also varies, starting from around 6pm to as late as 9 or 10pm The hotspots of these fireballs include the areas of Phon Phisai, Pak Khad,

Sang Khom, Sri Chiang Mai, and Bung Kan districts in Nong Khai province The fireballs are also allegedly found in other locations such as ponds and streams near the Mekong River

Out of these locations, Phon Phisai seems to be the one with the most number of fireballs

recorded in recent history These reddish-pink fireballs, allegedly, would rise from the Mekong

River when night falls Legend has it that a “mythical serpent or dragon” known as the Naga (or

Naak in Thai) is the one that is responsible for producing these fireballs (Cohen 2007) For many

years, these naga fireballs would appear almost like clockwork at the end of the Buddhist Lent period – known as the awk pan sa The background of the word naga can be summed up in a

word – new The Naga, as pointed out by Ngaosrivathana, “is a relatively new word adopted as a symbol of Buddhist high culture” (Ngaosrivathana 2010: 5) The word seems to be preceded by

an older word ngeuak, which indicates a mythical water creature This creature takes on a

fundamental meaning of “crocodile” in the Lan Na kingdom in Northern Thailand, and has changed over the years – from water snake to dragon and mermaid in other neighbouring Thai, Burmese and Southern China areas (Ngaosrivathana 2010) Even though some scholars believe

that the word naga does have some connections with the Chinese character ngao (鲛) – sea

dragon – it is fair enough to observe that the relationship between naga and waters (regardless of

river or sea) are intimately linked in various cultural groups that are all located along the Mekong River

My thesis examines the naga fireballs event as an anthropological lens to study liminality at both spatial and ideological levels It attempts to move away from more prevalent scholarship of the

event as tourism and/or commodification of religious events (See Cohen 2007) and I tell a more ethnographic background of the event, using the fireballs as a vantage point, to discuss liminality From this vantage point, other theoretical considerations such as community, as well as centre and periphery at borderlands will also be surfaced as day-to-day perspectives of the locals, the

communal politics involved, the competing discourses of the origins of the fireballs and the ways the local media portray the fireballs are ethnographically charted in this thesis

As I walked along the crowded Mekong River in Phon Phisai Town – approximately 700 kilometres from Bangkok – sentiments ranging from ecstasy to indifference filled the air with an undeniable aura of frenzied shouting, wild gesticulations, pockets of silence, as well as loud cheering It was very much a case of deja-vu, as it was merely a year ago that I witnessed the

magical fireballs along the Mekong River at Phon Phisai However, there was much difference in this trip; I was better prepared and had a place to stay in the town to conduct a more extensive fieldwork In other words, I was hoping to achieve a considerable level of “lived experience” that

I consider being pertinent for any research of an area studies nature

A quiet and sleepy town by normal standards throughout the year, the town’s radical transformation during these Naga festivities is no mean feat Meanwhile, I tried my best to

observe the surroundings and navigate my way through a narrow corridor filled with food and souvenir stalls amidst the fading sunset Anxious parents were sitting on makeshift-styled mats (apparently they were innovatively recycled from obsolete advertising posters) sold by local

entrepreneurs, while accompanying their curious children in anticipation of the annual Naga fireballs

I entered a small café taking a brief respite from the crowd with my professor We both sat at a

corner of the café enjoying some snacks as well as icy cold Beer Singha At the same time, it was the “live” telecast of a football match from the English Premier League “Not bad for a small town in Northeastern Thailand,” I thought to myself There were many locals, as well as

foreigners – Westerners – who were drinking, chatting and eating merrily My academic journey had begun, as I sipped my cold beer and enjoyed the fried chicken nuggets

A Short Introduction to the Naga

While I was busily munching my hot dog and sipping a glass of cool coconut drink, I could hear various touts selling a wide range of (suspiciously pirated) VCDs containing origin stories and

various myths of the naga and its fireballs There are various myths concerning the naga in Southeast Asia The naga (known to the Thai/Lao as the naak) is certainly no stranger to

Southeast Asians, as there are Hindi and Buddhist roots about its existence It was supposedly an

ancient Hindu hooded snake with multiple heads Some Hindu texts feature the naga as “coiling

up to support the god Vishnu” (Jumsai 1997) In Thai and Lao images, the naga is known as the Muchalinda and he forms a protective covering over the Buddha, the Enlightened One (Jumsai 1997) In Buddhist folklores, the naga is a devout worshipper of the Buddha and pays his

respects to Buddha Hence, these naga fireballs are said to be paying respects to the Lord Buddha and displaying their delight while Buddha returns from Heaven to Earth after visiting His mother (Somsin and Ganjanakhundee 2002)

In particular, the people living along the Mekong River would be very familiar with the notion of the Naga As aptly argued by Ngaosrivathana:

People of the Mekong region are conspicuously reminded of the naga’s versatility and

pervasive presence in one of the quintessential Buddhist ceremonies: the white-clothed

ordinand, thought to personify a naga who will become a monk All ordinands are given the

“naga” name because when Lord Buddha was alive, a naga wanted to be ordained as a monk

This naga transformed himself into a human being and the Buddha let him retain this form

so that he could enter monkhood One day the naga fell asleep and the spell wore off

resulting in the Buddha asking the naga to leave the monkhood In response, the naga asked

the Buddha if in future pre-ordination rites a man being ordained as a monk could be called

“naga” in remembrance of the naga faith in Lord Buddha’s teachings The Buddha accepted

this request (Ngaosrivathana 2010: 3)

Hence, in Isaan and Lao tradition, a man who is about to be ordained as a monk would be given

the title of naak, prior to his official monkhood

On the other hand, there are also various urban legends that are equally, if not more interesting

than the traditional myths The famous photograph of the American soldiers (presumably sailors) holding onto a large serpent-like fish that spans almost five metres long is an ubiquitous sight in Nong Khai province during this time of the year Various souvenir shops are also selling naga

related products – from VCDs to T-shirts I heard from one of the vendors at the Indochina

Market that there used to be a store that prides itself on selling only naga related products In

addition, others have told me that naga sightings were commonplace, especially of those who

claim to have seen them when they were young children playing along the Mekong River Certainly, one cannot help but notice the peculiar and eerie legend of Kham Chanot; allegedly a naga city filled with “naga people” and even has a “naga portal” that operates as a transport tunnel for naga people to travel to-and-fro

What can we learn from these strange and mystical fireballs? I had decided not to follow the conventional way of understanding it by investigating its real causes To be honest, I was not

very interested to find out if the fireballs were caused by natural methane combustion or an elaborate man-made hoax bent on stretching the tourist dollar to the maximum There were two contending debates with regard to the causes of these mysterious fireballs The first is natural –

that the naga fireballs are no more than a natural phenomenon One fervent proponent of this school of thought is a Nong Khai doctor, Manas Kanoksin, who has spent many years trying to prove his theory that the fireballs are a natural phenomenon caused by pockets of methane gas that are being released from the rich deposits of the Mekong River Once the methane reaches

the surface of the river, it would react with oxygen to combust spontaneously to create these fireballs

As to why the naga fireballs happen only within the Buddhist Lent period, his hypothesis is that the Buddhist Lent full moon coincides with the period when the earth is passing closest to the sun The gravity of the sun, with a higher degree of UV radiation, increases the volatility of the gases at ground level that could have contributed to the spontaneous combustion of methane and

oxygen

However, the other contending school of thought presented much more scientific skepticism

Professor Montri Boonsaneur, who teaches geological technology at Khon Kaen University and was in charge of an underwater survey prior to construction of the nearby Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, says that it is almost impossible that bubbles of methane could form in the river's rocky bed Most importantly, the combustion of methane normally takes place at a much higher

temperature – a feat that no room temperature would be able to perform Hence, he insisted that

it could not be a natural phenomenon Though he did not directly suggest that the naga fireballs are man-made, it seems to be that his ideas are inclining towards this man-made belief

(Gagliardi 2002)

“Look! There goes a fireball!” exclaimed an excited parent I looked towards the middle of the dark river and scrutinized the area intensely Reddish pink dots were rising from the middle of the river; and once they reached a considerable height, they vanished without a trace of smoke and sound These fireballs had attracted little attention in the past However, they had become

important from the state’s perspective in spurring tourism, and it is now being promoted as a major provincial religious festival Some have argued that its popularity has risen to new heights

since the screening of a Thai movie – Mekhong Full Moon Party (2002) Furthermore, the

number of tourists – albeit most of them are domestic – is known to hit up to 400,000 during this period (Cohen 2007)

The naga festival week is an annual event spanning one whole week on the tourism calendar of

the Tourism Authority of Thailand There would be various naga festival spots – where hawkers

will be setting up stalls selling an assortment of foodstuffs There will also be “live” performances by popular Thai bands The centre of attraction is of course, the beer garden tents

These tents, with their attractive beer promoters, will be cajoling prospective locals and tourists

to drink to their hearts’ fill At certain spots, such as the one at Nong Khai city, where more hotels and foreign tourists are found, the festivities would even include an attractive laser show

coupled with exotic dancers performing the naga legend

Some Theoretical Considerations

Now, what are theoretical considerations? Let me explicate the first theoretical concept of

“liminality” It is in fact a broad scholastic term that “refer[s] to in-between situations and

conditions that are characterized by the dislocation of established structures, the reversal of hierarchies, and uncertainty regarding the continuity of tradition and future outcomes” (Turner 1982; Thomassen 2009: 51) In addition, it is useful as a scholastic as well as a heuristic device when studying “events or situations that involve the dissolution of order, but which are also

formative of institutions and structures.” (Szakolczai 2009: 141)

The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae ("threshold people") are necessarily

ambiguous' (Turner 1969: 81) To a certain extent, identities of people become ambivalent and may even be dissolved, bringing about disorientation This is not necessarily bad as it might

churn out new perspectives and we can use the naga fireballs to analyze the “liminal identities”

of the folks in Phon Phisai Turner speculates that, if liminality is regarded as a time and place of

withdrawal from normal modes of social action, it potentially can be seen as a “period of scrutiny for central values and axioms of the culture where it occurs - one where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are undone In such situations, “the very structure of

society [is] temporarily suspended” (Szakolczai 2009: 142)

I use liminality as a central theoretical concept in my thesis as it has both spatial and temporal dimensions, and can be readily applied to a wide range of subjects including individuals,

communities and large societies and/or nation-states Liminal spaces inevitably create liminal

events In my thesis, I adopt the idea that the liminality of the naga fireballs is at a “moment”, in

which “a whole [community] face[s] a sudden event - sudden invasion, natural disaster, a plague

– where social distinctions and normal hierarchy disappear” (Thomassen 2009: 16) In my case, the fireballs create a liminal space where the community, even with some bitter differences,

comes together as one to celebrate the workings of the Great Naga in paying his respects to the Lord Buddha

However, according to Turner, all liminality must eventually dissolve, for it is a state of great

intensity that cannot exist very long without some sort of structure to stabilize it The individual may return to his or her existing social structures, or such liminal communities develop their own internal social structure, which Turner coins it as "normative communitas" (Turner 1969) Here,

using the fireballs as an anthropological lens, I would suggest that even with their internal social structures, these communities might still be “in-between places” as they are still “liminal” in the spatial sense It is in light of this that I expand the theoretical considerations to include the ideas

of community in a broader-than-Turner (communitas) sense, as well as the idea of centre and

periphery in borderlands

Many scholastic studies purport to understand religious events using certain anthropological

concepts such as “communities” Max Weber, acclaimed sociologist, discusses community in terms of social relations in which the relationships can be “based on a subjective feeling of the parties, whether affectual or traditional, that they belong together” (Weber 1978: 40) In some studies, questions involving “how sentiments of belonging are forged and maintained in

constantly rearticulated political, economic and social arrangements” are useful in acquiring insights of particular communities (High 2009: 89) In fact, the most famous of communities would be the one that is “imagined” to be at the level of a nation-state (Anderson 1991)

Community involves a great deal of the drawing and delineation of boundaries Anderson (1991) and Thongchai (1994) in particular have argued passionately about political boundaries as productions of state imaginations influenced by either media or national elites It is mindful to note that within a bounded community (Barth 1968) social norms can necessarily create a certain

sense of belonging that also hinges on social relations within the community (or even from one community to another) (Leach 1954) In particular, Thongchai’s “geo-body” is illuminating in pointing out those boundaries, especially those that have “mapped Siam”, are very much a

product of Western colonialism This concept is also useful, as we have to conceptualize the

Northeastern part of Thailand as also a physical state product of the Anglo-Siamese Treaty As

we move towards the era of printed media and even “Internet” media, it would also be useful to refer to Anderson’s seminal work on “imagined communities” whereby he argues that the power

of drawing territories is derived from the power of the state to disseminate “printed capitalism”

In addition, Leach’s analysis of identity formations in the highlands of Burma (1964) is also

useful for us as a theoretical foundation in analyzing identities within communities These identities, as shown by Leach, would “oscillate” and change in tandem with prevailing circumstances One would also find it appropriate to consider works of Bhabha (2006) that discusses how nations are being “narrated” These identities, regardless of their changing natures,

also need to work within imagined national boundaries as discussed by Chatterjee (1986), Gellner (1983), Balakrishnan (1996) and Smith (1971) that are disseminators of state and territory information Furthermore, scholars such as Appadurai (1996 & 2001), Cribb and

Narangoa (2004), Gupta and Ferguson (1992), Tanube and Keyes (2002) have also raised

questions of identities, sovereignty and state-loyalty from the social and “bottom-up” perspectives

Why is the community of Phon Phisai so academically interesting? This is because of the liminal

element involved As much as the naga fireballs reveal the liminality of Phon Phisai both

spatially and ideologically, it is difficult, in line with Turner’s argument, to argue that a “fixed community” does not exist Humans do not like to live in uncertainty; insofar as they might be

liminal, they do create boundaries and demarcate themselves as a community, consciously or subconsciously It is here in Phon Phisai that we can see a community that exists within borderland spaces contains spaces of “liberation of human capacities of cognition, affect, volition, creativity, etc from the normative constraints incumbent upon occupying a sequence of social

statuses” (Turner 1982: 44) For many other scholars, such as Cole and Wolf (1974), Heyman (1991), Kearney (1991) and Sahlins (1989), identities and borderlands also represent a microcosmic view of historical and social formations of these locales and their people Other

scholars such as Zdzisaw (1993), Chou (2010), Delang (2002), Barme (1993) and Yaeger (1996) have also argued about identities created and its attachment to place and locality, using Thai as well as non-Thai case studies as examples

As argued by Ishikawa, border zones “are an excellent arena for examining the genesis of transnationalism and its relation to the state” (Ishikawa 2010: 5) This borderland is also an important academic telescope to examine a “liminal” (Turner 1982) and “uneven” (Wolf 1999)

space and how people transform this space into a meaningful place (Relph 1976) through

“everyday resistances” against the state (Scott 2009)

Lastly, I wish to use the concepts of “centre and periphery” to locate the last corner of the theoretical considerations in my thesis It can also be seen as an extension of liminality and borderlands As argued by Horstmann:

“Increasingly important are ideas about boundaries and territoriality are particularly

important in the contemporary world, where social groups aim continually to define and

redefine the relations between social and physical space People on the fringe of the

nation-state – by their very existence – question its monopoly of identification and help to transform

concepts of nationalism that are otherwise taken for granted.” (Horstmann and Wadley 2009: Introduction)

These concepts can also bring about “more dynamic concepts of identity and community”

Contestation of identities become more intense within these communities situated at the borderlands as the liminality exists in both spatial and ideological planes; and perhaps, a more in-depth understanding is necessary through more informal and qualitative studies of the people

behind the naga festival, instead of more “social scientific number-crunching studies” Is the Isaan region being marginalized? Even though scholars are arguing that the marginal spaces are heavily influenced by the centre, I would suggest that the “margin” is in fact, in its bid to

“centre” itself; just as Phon Phisai might be centering itself to the bigger Thailand stage as a

whole And using the naga fireballs as a case study, we can see that the Isaan periphery is

“centering itself too.”

The common theoretical ground – between liminality, community and centre/periphery – that I

am proposing, is pretty much encapsulated within the works of Johnson (forthcoming 2012),

Meyer and Geschiere (1999) and Low and Lawrence-Zúñiga (2003); that liminality, even when it

exists both in spatial and ideological terms, are also grounded deeply in situatedness In other words, social meanings have to be concrete at some point in time and space so that they will develop geographically into a place Moreover, globalization has not radically transformed such

fluid borderlands; they have merely accelerated the processes of interactions and flows

Identities are still being created and they are still unstable and changing Studying Phon Phisai solely as a place without the fireballs would be to examine liminality at a much more superficial

level, which is why the fireballs do matter

Literature Review and Its Challenges

The rain began to stop I slowly walked through the television cameras and started to head back

to a café where I frequented a lot for its cheap beers As I approached the middle of the sheltered market, I saw a familiar signage reminding Thai and Lao people that only they are only allowed

to perform cross-border market shopping without the use of passports on Tuesdays and Saturdays This reminded me of works done by scholars on more specific naga histories and stories, such as Ngaosrivathana (2010) on the Lao and Northeastern Thai side, as well as Cohen (2009) who have covered extensively on the postmodern nature of tourism in Nong Khai and

Phon Phisai

Other more related works of Northeastern Thailand and especially the role of folklore and

Buddhism were done extensively by Tambiah (1970, 1976 and 1984) Also the history of (Northeastern) Thailand has also been covered critically by acclaimed Thai historians such as

David Wyatt (1984) The trove of studies conducted on Thailand, and in particular Northeastern Thailand is rich and abundant On the religious front, scholars such as Cohen (2007) and Kitiarsa (2008) have also commented on the religious commodifications in Thailand and their intended,

as well as unintended repercussions on religion and tourism

However, a very big constraint for my research was the lack of academic research on the naga fireballs that are go beyond being touristic in nature When I looked through some of the Thai

literature on the naga fireballs, they were mostly concerned with the religious significance in accordance with Buddhism Some of these works more specifically highlighted the importance

of keeping the Mekong River clean so as to ensure that there would be fireballs every year Other books, mostly non-academic in nature, discuss the naga story in a descriptive manner There are

some VCDs of mainly documentaries discussing the naga fireballs and its origins (See Bibliography on Thai sources and Annex 1) As much as one can infer the purposes of the creation of such materials, they were not academic literature per se

Insofar, none has readily taken on a more academic and anthropological study of the fireballs in tandem with the community of Phon Phisai This is perhaps one of the most critical obstacles of

my research Thai sources often provide a rich source of descriptive information about the naga:

ตามตํานานโบราณของชาวหนองคายได้กล่าวขานถึง “พราตุกลางนํา” และ

“พญานาค” ไว้ว่า เมื%อ พ.ศ ๑๙ มีพระอรหันต์ ๕ องค์อัญเชิญพระบรม

สารีริกธาตุฝ่าพระบาทขวาของค์พระสัมมาสัมพุทธเจ้า ๙ พระองค์ มา

ประดิษฐานที%เมืองหล้าหนองคาย (หนองคายปัจจุบัที%คุ้มวัดธาตุ อ.เมือง

หนองคาย โดยมีพระมหาสังขวิชัยเจ้าเมืองสมัยนันชาวเมืองและพญาสุทโธ

นาคราช (พญานาค) ร่วมสร้างอุโมงค์หินบรรจุพระบรมธาตุไว้

According to ancient beliefs of the people of Nong Khai, there were Buddhist relics and the

existence of Naga along the Mekong River When it was the Buddhist Era Year 19 (524 BCE) there were five holy monks who took the nine pieces of bone remains of the right leg of Lord

Buddha (which are known as relics) and came to the temple Thaat (Wat Thaat) of Nong

Khai At that time, Nong Khai was governed by Pra Mahasangkhavichai The monks,

together with the people of Nong Khai and the Naga, Payasotthonakharaat came together to

build a riverine tunnel along Mekong River to keep the relics inside. (The Faith of the Great

Naga, my translation)

I am not suggesting that tourism studies on the naga fireballs are not important In fact, Cohen’s

argument of the postmodernization of the naga festival has shed much light on tourism studies in

Phon Phisai; the commercial forces of tourism simply are too important to be ignored The contributions of Thai Beverage Company (150,000 Baht), DTAC (40,000 Baht) and Siam City Cement Company (30,000 Baht), amongst other sponsors, have brought in huge amounts of

revenue to Phon Phisai and other areas in Isaan that have similar festivities, albeit at a much smaller scale The tourist numbers of up to 400 000 also brought in tourist dollars It was estimated that the “direct contribution to the local economy is between 50 – 100 million Baht”

(Cohen 2007: 176)

Cohen’s work is to propose a postmodern approach of understanding the naga fireball festival as

an economic tool There would be no necessity to investigate and decide what exactly the origin

of the naga fireballs is because this would preserve the mysticism of the naga fireballs At the

same time, it is also unnecessary to determine the authenticity of the naga fireballs as that would also disrupt the elusiveness and enigma of the naga fireballs This apparent liminal state of the fireballs, according to Cohen, should be preserved, as long as it brings in the tourist dollars and aid the economic development of relatively poor Isaan region (Cohen 2007)

As much as I respect and agree with Cohen in the socio-economic practical aspect, I do not necessarily agree with his postmodern approach This “embrace-all” approach of understanding

an-already liminal event – the naga fireballs – will not deepen our understanding on the dynamic

underlying processes of naga fireballs happening in Phon Phisai From my opinion, he did not

fully engage the locals; neither did he provide a rich ethnographic account of the lives and perspectives behind the fireballs As such, in order to understand the local perspectives and

beliefs, it is necessary to seek more information from more locals to fully bring out the liminality

of the fireballs and Phon Phisai

Some Methodological Concerns

Whether you are a local or a domestic tourist who have travelled far from Bangkok or Hatyai,

you might be disappointed by the fact that there might not be a single naga fireball at all Fireball

sightings are random and entirely dependent on good fortune In the midst of looking for these mysterious fireballs, I have also endeavoured to adopt a less-structured research methodology in

a bid to understand this unique phenomenon Furthermore, using it as a case study to analyze

bigger theoretical grounds would demand large-scale predictions of social trends; this is out of the scope of this thesis

As such, the theoretical underpinning of social anthropological research known as participant observation is adopted in this thesis Jorgensen (1989) and Friedrichs (1975) have both discussed

at length about the methodologies and some of its limitations of such research endeavours My research involves a great deal of immersion into the community within the town of Phon Phisai

and naturally, with that entails a high level of bias and influence I conceive my study as a

contextualized piece of work; as Geertz has argued in The Interpretations of Culture (1970), the

difficulties in obtaining accurate information from informants is a problem in the inherent

complexity of the social order

In terms of the specifics of the research, less structured interviews with a rudimentary questionnaire is used Due to the limitations of time constraints, I was only living in Phon Phisai

for approximately 35 days The initial 10 days were used to getting to know people, a key figure would be Phi Daeng, who would turn out to be my most useful informants Fortunately, my proficiency of the Thai language is sufficient to conduct these interviews in the Thai language

with the aid of a MP3 recorder I am also thankful to Dr Pattana Kitiarsa for helping me to find a suitable place of accommodation, and with the help of my neighbours, I was able to move around the town with a bicycle On some longer trips to places such as Kham Chanot, I had the good fortune of transport in the form of a pick-up More often than not, my questions might steer into

seemingly controversial areas, and due to the initial 10 days of ice breaking, I was able to ask questions with regard to Buddhism and faith without offending many people Thick descriptions were acquired and most of my informants and respondents were very accommodating My local

friends have also kindly granted me their permission to observe and write about them in this thesis In order to protect their privacy and adhere to the ethics of social science research, I have

drawn reference to them with the use of pseudonyms I do not proclaim to represent a dominant social trend in Thai society; I am merely telling the stories of a small group of people living in a small town in Northeastern Thailand

Chapter Organization

Chapter Two will purport to illustrate liminality through two aspects – the geographical

landscape of the area being a borderland and the shifting ideological identities of being a member of Phon Phisai, and to a larger extent, the Isaan region It uses the naga fireballs as lens

to understand liminal people who are also living in such “in-between” spaces

Chapter Three will pay attention to the community aspect of the naga fireballs and how it brings

about an internal structure after the liminality dissolves Also, the social history of the myth of

the naga, the fireballs, as well as the festival itself will be discussed at length Naga evidences,

such as naga fossils, will also be discussed as empirical “constructions” to “create and imagine”

a communal historical naga tradition (Hobsbawn 1983) Such fixations of production of naga

myths and histories, I argue, have been cleverly adapted by the community to provide some internal structure and certainty to a liminal life

Chapter Four will focus on the tension between centre and periphery What do the naga fireballs illuminate us? They tell us a rich story of competing discourses, of local politics, of media

influence and how these forces and tales present to us the other less told story – that the margin and the peripheral is also trying to align and put itself visible to the national audience as well

The naga fireball event might be liminal – that it shifts from a non-event to an event and

vice-versa continuously – but external forces from the centre and the periphery are also trying to stabilize and ‘tame’ this liminality

I conclude my thesis in Chapter Five by reinforcing the arguments that the naga fireballs are a crucial scholastic tool to understand liminality at both spatial and ideological levels, located at a borderland The fireballs are pertinent as they provide the crucial moment that liminality sets in

with a great deal of mystical elements because they added mystical dimensions of whether or not the fireballs are indeed authentic It also creates liminality within a liminal event – the event is oscillating from a non-event, to an event, and vice-versa in a perpetual manner

As I sipped my ice-cold glass of Beer Singha along the cool Mekong River, and at the same time

discussing with my friend Phii Daeng the forthcoming Arsenal versus Blackburn soccer match of

the English Premier League, I could not help but marvel at how some strange phenomenon could

have such wider social and political implications

Chapter Two - Liminality

Liminality at a Spatial Level – Borderlands as In-between Spaces

With much good fortune, I got to know Phi Daeng at a rare cafe scene, something uncommon in

a small town in Northeastern Thailand Phi Daeng is a local and typical Isaan person, who works

as a freelance graphic designer, and also helps out at the regular café that I hang out with He is

42 years old, and a swinging bachelor who believes in freedom He lives with his parents and is comfortable with his present lifestyle – not too stressful but at the same time is also able to support his family and himself There would be days where I would follow him around as he takes orders from various clients in a bid to employ him to design stickers for signage From the

local sundry stores to the faraway factory, we would travel around using Phi Daeng’s quaint old scooter – the popular choice of transport in small Thai towns Even though the money is little, he would say that life in Isaan is about contentment, friends and leisure

Phon Phisai is a small town, with a small community Friends of Phi Daeng such as Khun Phii, Tae and others all know each other and each other’s parents Quite commonly, they own small shops and the town is almost a self-contained local economy Patrons of these stalls are amongst

the members of this community Some people, such as Phi Daeng, have never even reached the capital of Bangkok; many people that I have talked to also did not see a need to make passports – they rarely, if at all, needed to travel overseas If they need to travel to Laos (and Vientiane, the

capital of Laos, is only half an hour of bus ride from Nong Khai city), they would only need to purchase a “Laos Entry Permit” from the Thai Permit and Customs Office

However, one also needs to bear in mind that Phon Phisai is a town that borders Mekong River;

on the opposite side is a small Laotian town In fact, much of Nong Khai province and other Northeastern provinces are home to the Mekong River Phon Phisai’s neighboring districts include Rattanawapi and Fao Rai of Nong Khai Province, Ban Dung, Sang Khom and Phen of

Udon Thani Province, and Mueang Nong Khai (Nong Khai city) of Nong Khai province To the north across the Mekong River are the Laotian Vientiane prefecture and the Bolikhamxai province In fact, it takes only a half an hour bus ride from Nong Khai city to the Thai-Lao

border custom, where the travelling is mostly done via the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge that spans across the Mekong River This unique situation of a tightly knit community that sits on a borderland makes Phon Phisai a very interesting area to conduct research on Furthermore, liminal spaces inevitably bring out liminal events The locality of Phon Phisai, as well as the

naga fireballs being sighted in the middle of a river has accentuated the liminality of it because a river is in-between two physical spaces of certainty; in which a river is in some sense, uncertain

as its position is vague and it is also constantly moving in a state of flux (river flows)

Most Isaan locals speak a local Thai dialect; known as Isaan language, it is in fact the language

of Laos Hence, linguistically speaking, this strange convergence of national language and dialect has formed an interesting linguistic common space between the Isaan people and the

Laotians It is interesting to note that such borderlands and communities are also commonplace

in Eastern Europe and Central Europe In particular, many former USSR satellite states, former European Communist countries have complicated shared heritage and culture that have been

forcefully segregated by explicit political boundaries The study of borderlands and spaces in these places has been well defined by various scholars such as Debardeleben (1985), Whittlesey

(1939), Ryszkwoski (1994) and May (1995), even though their focus is more on environmental nationalism rather than the study of the cultures of such borderlands itself

The study of such borderlands is not new; in the earlier half of the century, borderlands studies

have been preoccupied with the “state of lawlessness” within such places The subversive tendencies of those whose life-paths cross national demarcations have long been a preoccupation

in studies of borderlands In the 1950s Kristof (1959) wrote of the conflict between

“inner-oriented” states and “outer-“inner-oriented” borderlanders In a less obvious intertwining of elite ideology and spatial analysis, peripheral borderlands were mapped as “frontier zones” characterised by what Kristof called “rebelliousness”, lawlnessness and/or an absence of laws (Kristof 1959: 281)

In recent years, borderland studies have shifted the lens towards one that is reflexive and encompassing, be it political or cultural A borderland provides a useful perspective from which

to examine the genesis of state territoriality, the evolution of national space and the relation between the two (Johnson, forthcoming 2011) Residents of border zones deal on a daily basis with the most concrete manifestation of the nation-state – its territorial boundary, and for people

in this situation the nation-state is an everyday reality rather than the subject of ideation and

imagination Questions of identity and “location-work” (Appadurai 1996) can have far-reaching consequences, and quotidian decisions about the affiliation of people and things that are deeply associated with the position of people as villagers, members of ethnic groups and nationals of

geo-bodies, all of which put political, economic and socio-cultural grids upon them

Borderlands function as liminal spatial zones where the nature of things is inevitably transformed

by various neighbouring zones Because the boundaries that create, direct and regulate flows of people, goods, capital, ideas and practices and technologies are artificial and structural, hence using these zones as academic lens to analyse the people’s identities and reflexivity would be

highly realistic and interesting Borderlands such as Phon Phisai become in-between spaces because people on both sides of the Mekong River can travel relatively freely to-and-fro Although in recent years border controls have been tightened to control the smuggling of rice

and other essential commodities, one of my informants, Jib, has told me that crossing the Mekong River is as easy as paying a token sum of “coffee money” (bribe) to the Thai customs police If not, one can certainly do it legally on every Tuesday and Saturday – The Thai-Lao bazaar

Talaat Thai-Lao – Borderland Markets

The Thai-Lao weekly market/bazaars are significant testaments to the dynamics exhibited by the people living within borderlands It is in fact a microcosm of a borderland community On every Tuesday and Saturday, eager Lao people will travel across the Mekong River to purchase highly sought after Thai products Language is not a problem to these people as the Lao people speak

Lao, which is very similar to the Isaan dialect In fact, before the colonially-enforced demarcation imposed by the Franco-Siamese Treaty back in 1893, much of northeastern

Thailand was in fact also belonging to Lao territory1 When I was at the market, it was extremely difficult to distinguish who is in fact a Thai and who is a Lao

I was half expecting to see some exotic products to be put on sale during these markets However,

I was very wrong Informal market economies thrive on the sale of very ordinary yet necessary products I casually asked one of the local Thais as to why the Lao people would buy such commonplace products – shampoo, t-shirts etc He replied that due to the backwardness of the

Lao economy, in particular in these rural villages, some of the products are actually cheaper when a Lao purchases it at the Thai side

As an outsider to the Phon Phisai (as well as the Lao) community, I was not really interested in

the products on sale Most of the items at the market could be purchased in the supermarket in town centre Also, perhaps the most exciting and exotic item on sale was some medicinal oil that was supposedly extracted from the gall bladders of snakes The foodstuffs on sale were also

Isaan in flavour and some Lao people even fancy grabbing a bite at the coffee shops closer to the town centre

Now, the vital question to ask is: what has the naga fireballs, as an event, got to do with the

Thai-Lao bazaar? The answer is: the naga festival, which includes a bazaar, looks almost the same as

the Thai-Lao bazaar The same shelter is used to sell foodstuffs; the same restaurants along the Mekong River are opened In fact, the Thai-Lao bazaar is almost like a weekly naga fireball

festival, minus the fireballs as aptly encapsulated by Phii Daeng Similar activities of buying,

selling and mingling amongst both Thais and Laos are being conducted at this in-between space

of approximately two kilometers along the Mekong River at Phon Phisai

Liminality of the Naga Fireballs as an Event

In fact, the Thai-Lao bazaar has exposed an important liminal aspect of the naga fireballs – of a

liminal event It constantly shifts from a non-event to an event If you remove the fireballs from

the festival, it almost looks like a non-event, such as the Thai-Lao bazaar happening at a liminal landscape such as a borderland

What exactly is a “non-event”? I remember chatting with Khun Phii, who is a good friend of Phii

Daeng at his café Khun Phii, in his 30s, had worked for over 10 years in Bangkok before

returning to Phon Phisai to run his own café When asked about the naga fireballs, he brushed it

off as “something extraordinary” and “seen by his father and grandfather” He has seen the

fireballs from afar a couple of times and other than that, he merely treats the whole festival as “a good opportunity for more business, and to get drunk and wasted” To people like Khun Phii, the

naga fireballs are no more than a busy carnival; it certainly has little meaning or does not make

much sense with him

However, there are forces generated by others living in Phon Phisai to make the naga festival an event Even as an outsider, I must confess that the experience of watching the naga fireballs is a

liminal one Having experienced both the Thai-Lao bazaar and the naga festive carnival, I must admit that the naga carnival invoked emotions that do not involve class, structure or groupings

When we were eagerly anticipating the fireballs to appear, I could still feel that I was a tourist However, when the first fireball appeared out of nowhere, I suddenly feel that I am in a zone of

“in-between”; I felt very “religious”, “sacred” and “blessed” Words could not describe adequately my sentiments I felt almost like the crowd who were watching the fireballs as well –

the frenzy, the happiness and the bright smiles on the faces Clearly, it was an event Even though I was at the naga carnival at Nong Khai City earlier on, I did not experience any

“liminal” sentiments The same thing occurred when I was back in Phon Phisai the following

year to conduct my fieldwork when in that year, no fireballs were witnessed; the magical and mystical sentiment just ceased to exist and the carnival looked like a night Thai-Lao bazaar with

a larger crowd Such is the importance of the naga fireballs in creating liminality within a liminal

spatial plane

Turner’s concept of liminality is mainly focused on timeline of events, such as a man’s rite of passage However, the level of liminality of the naga fireballs here have also a physical

dimension to it – that is the mystique of such fireballs at a liminal area brought about by having

no concrete rational explanation as to why and how the naga fireballs are formed In other words, there was simply no certain answer to it I am developing Turner’s idea of liminality to include in-between spaces and events as well in this thesis

In addition, the liminality of the naga fireballs is such that it is neither confirmed to be authentic nor false In other words, people, including the locals, the scientists as well as the state, are

perpetually second-guessing the origins of these mystical fireballs This mystical element is amplified by various competing discourses Various newspapers clippings, talk shows and

interviews with experts have alluded us to the scientific aspect of the Naga fireballs – which people were trying to investigate and hypothesise a scientific and rational explanation to the workings of the fireballs (See Chapter One for a more detailed explanation) In fact, many people that I have talked to, including a computer shop owner, Phi W, have commented that the fireballs

should be a natural phenomenon

I was desperately seeking some computer accessories to process some of my field notes when I

chanced upon Phi W, who is the owner of a computer shop After buying a keyboard and two

computer speakers, I proceeded to have a good chat with him with regard to the naga fireballs

Phi W, like many youngsters living in Phon Phisai, is much like a typical middle-class Thai and

he is relatively young, at 32 years old He is single and still lives with his parents I then asked

him some general questions about the Isaan region He said that Isaan is his birthplace, and hence there is some attachment to this place I then asked him about the Mekong River He said that the Mekong River is a very important river as it provides means of livelihood for many people on

both sides of the river – which proves it usefulness as well He is contented and proud to be a member of the Isaan community as well as he thinks that it has a unique culture – it is different from the other parts of Thailand (such as North, South, and Central)

Educated in a local university, he believes that the naga fireballs are nothing more than natural

phenomena that are yet to be scientifically verified He commented that perhaps, with more advanced scientific instruments, they might be able to discover its natural origins I asked him if

this contradicts with his Buddhist beliefs, and he said it does not When pressed further, he answered that Buddhism to him is a belief and it stays that way

The scientific and natural phenomenon discourse hinges on rational thinking Many Thai scientists believe that the naga fireballs are a result of the combustion of methane gas at the surface of the Mekong River The Mekong River is widely known to be a depository of decomposed bodies and many scientists have hypothesised that these decomposed materials will

release methane from the riverbed into the open space above the river When this happens, the methane will combust with the oxygen above the river and thus send some fireballs straight up the sky

However, such a scientific explanation finds no satisfaction amongst skeptics Other opposing scholars have argued that the temperature required for methane combustion is too high –

approximately more than 300 degree Celsius – to be achieved on a cold awk pansa night at the

Mekong River; others have cautioned that the date of the release of methane is too much of a coincidence As to the point why the Mekong River chooses to release its methane on the full

moon night of awk pansa, it remains to be a mystery Other scholars, including experts hired by

the media to appear on their television talk-shows, have hypothesised that the Naga fireballs are

a result of man-made pranks created by the Lao soldiers for entertainment purposes This discourse has widespread violent ramifications; the television station that was involved in producing this “documentary” has been vehemently reprimanded by the public when they were

exposed to be a hoax Others who have supported this discourse have few reasons to be happy too – they were accused of being sacrilegious and disrespectful to Buddhism

The second guessing process continues as I found more varied views amongst the locals I was as usual travelling on my trusty bicycle when I stumbled upon something interesting – a proper

bookstore at Phon Phisai It was very interesting because there are no proper bookstores here; most bookstores double up as photocopying shop And certainly, there was no reading culture, at least in this part of Thailand

Gingerly, I went into the store and the friendly male storeowner greeted me I asked him if there were any books about the Naga fireballs and he amicably handed me a thin copy Feeling slightly disappointed, I asked him if there were any more and he answered, “No, that is the only copy and

it’s free actually.” I acknowledged his good intention and he then asked me about my origins (most Thais do because after a few sentences they realize that they are talking to a foreigner), in which I replied “Singapore” Suddenly, he felt very excited and he invited me to sit at the al fresco corner outside the bookstore and served me coffee He then asked me to chat with his wife,

who could speak English relatively well To my surprise, they know Singapore pretty well as they had been there several times His wife is actually an English language tutor (and also she is not a local of Phon Phisai; she is a Bangkokian) who has a Master degree in English language at

a university in Bangkok We chatted for a very long time and I talked to her husband as well They both run the bookstore because they are lovers of reading and books At level two, they operate a cosy guesthouse that is very well designed and affordable

Before I knew it, it was past lunchtime already and his wife, Paa X, had students arriving for tuition She then asked me very kindly if I needed interview subjects and they would be willing

to help Feeling grateful, I told her that it would be better for me to talk to them after their tuition

and I thus arranged to come back to the store again at 3pm Soon, I was back at the store talking

to three teenagers who are about 17 years old – Min, Grace and Am I decided to chat with them

in an informal way as they answered freely and I audio-recorded the whole conversation

I picked some questions from my questionnaire and asked them casually if they had seen the

fireballs They replied that they had seen these fireballs before and they all believe in both the existence of the fireballs and the Naga However, with regard to whether the Naga is the cause of the fireball, there were mixed views One of the girls is apparently more religious than the other

two and thus replied quite confidently that the fireballs are largely caused by the Naga The other two were more cautious and said that they half-believe that the cause of the fireballs is the Naga and perhaps, it is a natural phenomenon Of course, all three were not sure about the real cause of the fireballs as that has always been a fiercely debated and contentious issue

From all these responses, we can see that the naga fireballs as an event is an important

anthropological lens to explore the concept of liminality at both a spatial and a belief level

because the ideas of these fireballs are filled with in-between answers of uncertainty and a peculiar reconciliation between science and irrationality – where some people quite plainly believe that the fireballs can both be a product of nature, as well as a product of the real naga

Liminality at an Ideological Level – Shifting Identities

As I hang out at the Phon Phisai Cafe quite regularly, I asked Phi Daeng about his opinions of

the Mekong River He said that the Mekong River is very important to the people of Nong Khai (and Phon Phisai) province This is because in the past, the main transport is the river itself; no

roads were constructed yet during that time Fishermen also relied on the river for a living and hence it is an important part of Nong Khai, Phon Phisai and to a general extent the Isaan region Across the Mekong we can actually see Laos I asked him about his views of Laos and he said that they have a cousin-like relationship Many villagers have relatives over at each side and

hence people just cross the river Sometimes Lao people would cross over to the Thai side to buy things as goods there are expensive Surprisingly, even though the Lao side seems to be more rural with more forested areas, Daeng said that usually there would be a Thai village facing

directly a Lao village across the river In a way, they do take care of each other and form a fraternal relationship From there, I can almost conclude that in fact the Thai-Lao rivalry, at least

at the ordinary people level, seems to be almost non-existent

Even though there is no rivalry, certainly Daeng does not think that he is a Laotian He feels that there is some kind of Isaan identity and is contented to be a member of the Isaan region However, he does not feel anything unique about Phon Phi Sai or his association with it, coupled

with the naga belief He knows that both the Thais and Lao people share the same naga beliefs

about the fireballs and he is fine when I said that maybe both the Thais and the Lao people living

in this area can be coined as naga people However, when I asked him if he thinks that he is a

Thai citizen:

Daeng: I think I am Thai But I feel more Isaan than Thai Can I say that I am an Isaan person

instead?

Me: But what if I compel you to choose – either you are Thai or Isaan

What would your answer be?

Daeng: I am not too sure I don’t think I can make such a choice Anyway I don’t think that such a

question even makes sense in the first place We don’t think of ourselves as strictly Thais or

Isaan people

Me: Then are you Lao?

Daeng: (Laughs) Of course not!

These are common responses of borderland peoples – national identities and local sentiments are never in sync Perhaps, it might be important to raise a fairly old point, as raised by Leach (1954) that ethnic identity tends to be in oscillation and in relation to one’s position and economic

advantages And it is also a fair point to remember that Leach’s research community of Shan and Kachin states are pretty much the borderland areas that I am studying now And as such, one can never pinpoint one’s identity specifically and this only compounds the liminality of the borderland

I then had the good fortune to interview my neighbour, Khun S He is 55 years old and married with two children who are working as teachers in other provinces of Thailand He mentioned that

the Mekong River is very important, not only to Thailand, but to other countries as well because the Mekong River runs through Mainland Southeast Asia, and into Southern China When asked about Thailand’s relationship with Laos, he said that Laos is like a brother to them, in particular Isaan, since they are just separated but the Mekong River He is very contented and proud to be

an Isaan people because in Isaan, the weather is good and he is able to make a living

I then asked him about his views of the Naga fireballs He said that the naga fireballs are good

and important to Phon Phisai district because even though some other places have reports of

fireballs sightings, Phon Phisai remains the most important place with the most fireballs I then commented that at the other side of the Mekong River, The Lao people can also claim that their village is the most important one because they also see the fireballs Then Khun S remarked in a

fairly cryptic manner – that the naga fireballs is a very Thai thing Lao people certainly did not

help or contribute in the event to make it a success

This is an important point, as the naga fireballs seemed to have added liminality to the-already

fluid identities of being Thai or Lao In the first place, identities are already difficult to be defined as they are shifting, and in particular if they are identities of people living in borderlands

People living across borders tend to see each other as brothers and sisters However, the naga

fireballs, coupled with the naga belief, have created identities that are in-between as well How

does one make sense of naga people? Contrasting views between Phii Daeng and Khun S have only served to complicate identity matters further, in a liminal way by introducing the idea of a fluid naga identity that is both elusive, and difficult to be articulated

Another place that I hang out frequently is Tu Car Racing Shop On many hot afternoons, I will

be sitting outside their car and motorcycle accessories shop as I listened to their idle banter On one usual hot afternoon, as I sat there, with Phi Daeng, Tu, and Tu’s sister savouring a big

watermelon with a big bottle of Pepsi, I chanced upon precious information To my surprise, Tu and his family belong to third-generation Vietnamese; the first generation came during the tumultuous times of the Vietnam War Tu’s mother could still speak Vietnamese and cook many

delicious Vietnamese dishes; Tu on the other hand, could only manage simple Vietnamese words

I was also lucky to enjoy some Vietnamese dishes amidst the usual somtam (papaya salad) and