Meeting the Mask Makers of Dan Sai, Isaan, Thailand

Located in a lovely valley amid gently undulating hills, Dan Sai, in the Loie Province of Thailand’s Isaan region, is a town of dilapidated wooden houses that is famous for Phi Ta Kon, a boisterous three-day rainmaking festival, also known as the Ghost Festival, which coincides with a grand merit-making event known as Boon Luang.

At the folk museum at the temple complex of Wat Phon Chai in Dan Sai, we learn that in Thai, ‘Phi’ (pronounced ‘pee’) means ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit’, ‘Ta’ means ‘eyes’ and ‘Kon’ is a traditional Thai masked dance. It’s because of ‘Phi Ta Kon’ that the mask makers of Dan Sai in the Loie Province in the Isaan region of Northeast Thailand are so famous.

Held in June-July each year, Phi Ta Kon is essentially a fertility festival that kicks off the start of the rainy season and the planting of rice crops. From the film we watch in the folk museum, the festival looks to be a bit of a bawdy event with a carnival-like atmosphere, and the big, bold, painted masks are a key component of the festival.

We’re keen to learn more about the festival, the masks, and ‘kon’, the traditional Thai masked dance performed during the festival, so we set off in search of Dan Sai’s famous mask makers.

Meeting the Mask Makers of Dan Sai, Isaan, Thailand

On the first day of Dan Sai’s  festival of Phi Ta Kon, locals dress up as spirits, wearing the flamboyantly painted masks, raggedy patchwork costumes, and phallic-shaped accessories, and parade through town, making mayhem along the way.

On the festival’s second day, the locals dance to the temple, where they fire bamboo rockets into the air.  On the third and final day, they head to the temple to listen to sermons recited by local monks and they pray for rain.

Like the weavers in Chonnabot, mask-making isn’t a full time profession for the people of Dan Sai. It’s something they do when they’re not working the fields. So we drive the tranquil lanes of the village looking for a mask-maker. We look for locals who aren’t wearing rubber boots.

In a mask shop that has been fashioned from the front rooms of his home, we find local artisan Apiwat – nicknamed ‘Wat’, which is Thai for ‘temple’. Apiwat sits on the floor, bare-footed and cross-legged, painstakingly painting a mask.

Wat says he’s happy to talk to us, telling us that his teenager daughter works elsewhere in the house on the costumes, and invites us to join him on the floor.

Traditionally made from the corn husk baskets used to carry rice, and the hard part of a palm frond, Wat says that these days most mask makers create the masks from a substance made from sticky rice. Others use papier-mâché, pottery and even wood. They then apply acrylic paints.

As Wat paints, he has that same intense concentration that we observed in Chonnabot’s weavers and we find his attentiveness to his craft just as absorbing.

The mask that Wat is painting is absolutely beautiful. But, sadly, we have little room in our luggage for large masks. I end up buying a small souvenir of a spirit man wearing a mask.

Wat admits to knowing little about the festival and when and how it started, although he says it’s one of his favourite times of the year, when Dan Sai really comes alive.

At the museum we had learnt about the origins of Phi Ta Kon festival, found in accounts of Buddha’s last incarnation before attaining enlightenment, when village spirits appeared to celebrate his return.

At the start of Phi Ta Kon, we learnt, a spirit medium performs a ritual at the Muan River, which runs through Dan Sai, to waken a revered monk who is thought to be meditating on the river floor.

Throughout the festival, cowbells jingle from the waists of the colourful costumes of the spirits to announce their arrival. The jingling of bells becomes the soundtrack of the town for a few days.

Terence and I decide to return to the town for the festival one day. On that trip, we’ll make sure we have enough room for a mask. And some bells.

As we explore the countryside around Dan Sai, we hear the tinkling of cowbells. Unfortunately for us, they’re only announcing the arrival of a farmer leading his stock to new pastures to graze. However, it does look like it might rain…

Phi Ta Kon festival
Dan Sai, Loie Province
Thailand, June-July*
* Note that dates for the festival, which are communicated by the spirits to the town’s mediums, change each year. Check the Tourism Authority of Thailand website.