(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)
The sleepy town of Oulu has never seen such rich culture from the Orient as it did yesterday, and I was proud to be a part of it.
The Thai people who live in Oulu who have been busy building a tradition of Thai food, brought much of the heritage in the form of food, music and dance, as well as their reverance to their religion (Buddhism) and their Monarchy to Oulu yesterday.
Special thanks to the two dynamic people who organised this event - Unnop and Pailin. Unnop is the owner of the Pailin Restaurant located in the Kasarmi area in the shadow of Intiö.
The event was held to celebrate the birthday of the Thai Queen. This has been made synonymous to Mother's Day in Thailand.
The present Thai Monarchy is the longest surviving one in the world. They are loved and respected by the people of Thailand as they stand for love and affection of the people of that great country. Thailand is a democracy, but even the most radical of politicians accept the will of the Monarch as they know he uses wisdom and not political greed when he makes a suggestion.
Finnmatkat, who are one of Finland's leading travel agencies were present to inform about the new direct Oulu to Thailand flights that are being introduced this December.
Artist Rakchanok Pöllänen (née Phunsawat) from Kanchanaburi, wife of Petri Pöllanen, showed the art of vegetable and soap carving with many examples of her work on display. The master carver, Unnop, held the audience spellbound as he carved a watermelon.
There was an exqiuisite performance of Thai dancing by a bevy of beautiful Thai ladies.
And Omena, a Thai beauty, showed the audience how lithe she was as she swayed to the great music played by three young Thai musicians, Khim Surasit Munkmeesri (base guitar, right), Soda (Thai guitar) and Chanyut Nongbua (not seen in this picture).
And the audience of Thais, Finns and other nationalities joined in the dancing to the haunting music.
The exhibition of the art and tradition associated with Thai boxing also was truly eye-stopping as the two teenage boys, Khim Surasit Munkmeesri and Chanyut Ningbua (son of June Bunchuen Koskela), went through the paces of a typical fight.
Hostess Pailin performed better than any professional crooner and the audience rose and cheered her rendition of many Thai favourites as Omena showed that you need not be dressed wth finery to perform a Thai dance!
Inside the restaurant the Thai Buddhist Monk gave darshan to the people and talked to the audience of unity and moral strength.
Several Chaff participants turned up as we had made this the CHAFF meeting for this week.
CHAFF founder Bill Zhang from China was present.
As also was co-founder Kamutaza Tembo from Zambia.
And several expressed their interest in coming to future CHAFF meetings like this beautiful and intelligent Chinese doll, Annie.
The audience represented the entire spectrum of the cosmopolitan life of Oulu from Finns of all ages to people from all corners of the globe bring both colour and a feeling of love and unity to the entire event.
Four local youngsters watched proceedings from afar as we went and asked them to join in!
Many people helped to make this event a grand success.
Rin flew in from Helsinki to help his longtime friend, Unnop, with the arrangements and the cooking.
Jarmo, who has lived in Thailand and learnt to be a Monk acted as the Master of Ceremonies and did yoeman service.
Esa who has just moved into the area near the restaurant not only helped in making the arrangements and cleaning the tables as early as 4.30 in the morning, but he also ran a sausage fry stall!
Rakchanok and Petri Pöllänen, seen relaxing here after the event, were the real stalwarts behind this event as they even brought the special T-Shirts from Thailand and also the traditional musical instruments that were used by the musicians.
The signing of the get-well message to the King of Thailand who is recuperating after an operation was a feature of the event. The book containing the signatures will leave for Thailand on the 27th of this month.
It is sad that some people who did nothing to organise or set up this festival tried to hi-jack the credit to themselves. Credit goes to the people named above and a few more who really dedicated themselves to the success of this event without any thought of making a profit of the proceedings. But others tried to use this event to make a bit of money out of it. That is sad, BUT LUCKILY THEY DID NOT SUCCEED IN THEIR EFFORTS.
As more pictures reach me I will post them on the blog. The pictures above are mainly courtesy of Kannan and also Unnop and Pailin who used Kannan's camera to take some of the shots.
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