Laos develops tourism associated with traditional rain-praying festival

In recent years, authorities in many localities in Laos have made efforts to turn the Boun BangFai festival into a tourist attraction, thereby generating additional income for local people.

The rain-praying festival is also known as the Fireworks Festival in Laos. (Illustration. Source: Airbooking.vn)

Boun BangFai Festival, also known as the Rain Praying Festival or the Fireworks Festival, is one of the oldest, happiest and biggest traditional festivals of the year for the people of the Land of a Million Elephants.

In recent years, authorities in many localities of Laos have made efforts to turn this festival into an event to not only maintain the nation's fine cultural traditions, but also to attract tourists, thereby creating more income for local people.

Located more than 120 km from the capital Vientiane, Nam Lik Tourist Area is one of the new eco-tourism destinations that the local government has put into operation in the past few years. In order to promote the Tourist Area and attract tourists to the locality, this year, the Feuang District government decided to organize Boun BangFai for the first time at Nam Lik Tourist Area instead of the traditional location elsewhere in the district.

According to the Organizing Committee, this is the first time the district has organized Boun BangFai on a large scale, including the launching of BangFai Lan, the largest BangFai among the BangFai levels that not every locality in Laos has enough resources or enough free space to launch. This helps the festival of Feuang district attract a lot of tourists.

Mr. Khamphet Chanchomphou, Secretary and Chairman of Feuang District, said that the district decided to organize a large-scale Boun BangFai at Nam Lik Tourist Area for three main purposes: first, to maintain and preserve the beauty of the ethnic culture from thousands of years ago; second, to strengthen solidarity between local authorities and people; third, to promote the tourist area in Feuang District, thereby helping to create momentum for the tourism industry in this locality to develop more and more, bringing income to the people.

Coming to this festival, people from villages in Feuang district and localities in the region brought 3 main types of BangFai, including BangFai Mun, the type of BangFai that weighs from 10 to more than 20 kg and is about 7m long; BangFai Sen, the type that can weigh up to more than 100 kg and is over 10m long; and BangFai Lan, the type with the largest weight of up to 500 kg, which, as mentioned above, is not available in every BangFai festival, and if available, it is only in very limited quantities. According to the announcement of the Organizing Committee, this BangFai festival in Feuang district has up to 8 BangFai Lan fruits.

Early in the afternoon, in the scorching heat, a series of BangFai of various sizes, after being filled with powder and fitted with fuses, were mounted on launching stands of suitable height and size according to the length and weight of each type of firecracker, set up along the Lik River. With the loudspeakers of the organizing committee urging people and tourists to stay away from the launching area to ensure safety, the first BangFai, after being electrified, began to emit large plumes of smoke from their tails before making terrifying screeches and soaring into the air, leaving only white smoke hidden in the high clouds.

On the ground, all the people and guests shouted and clapped their hands in joy when they saw the fireworks flying high and far. Everyone believed that this year their family, their village, their pagoda and their country would have luck and success.

Squeezing shoulders with the extremely excited crowd who were shouting when witnessing the "terrifying" power from the shock wave created by the BangFai Lan rocket, while watching the rocket's flight path, Mr. Khanxay Hitsobath, a tourist from the capital Vientiane, said that the reason he traveled to this tourist destination was because this year the local government organized the Bun BangFai Lan, a large BangFai that most Lao people wanted to witness with their own eyes the power it created when launched, and also to take the opportunity to visit this emerging tourist area because he had not had the opportunity to visit before.

Pointing to the endless stream of people and vehicles still pouring into the launch site, Mr. Khanxay highly appreciated the local government's idea of ​​organizing the festival in conjunction with tourism development, saying that this not only helps people preserve traditional culture, but also helps tourists, in addition to enjoying Boun BangFai, learn more about beautiful tourist attractions in this place, thereby attracting tourists, bringing additional income to local people through tourism-related activities.

According to Secretary and Chairman of Feuang District, Mr. Khamphet Chanchomphou, through organizing this festival, the district government hopes to increase the number of tourists coming to Nam Lik Tourist Area from the current average of about 3,000 visitors per month to at least about 10,000 visitors per month, which will help promote tourism and economic development of the district.

According to Lao beliefs, Boun BangFai has a very important meaning in spiritual life, because this is the way for people to send prayers to God, to grant favorable weather so that trees and plants grow well, crops grow, all things grow, and bring prosperity to the people.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/lao-phat-trien-du-lich-gan-voi-le-hoi-cau-mua-truyen-thong-230545.html