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are also present. One such festival is the Rek Na or
ploughing festival, during which the king is exorted to
Dusit ( = Tusita}> a royal park outside Bangkok, where
he performs the ploughing ceremony* In India, we
find such ceremonies prescribed for landowners in
Grlv;a Sutras. In Nidana Kathx the Buddha's
father is seen performing such a ceremony.
Another Brahmanic festival is the 772/5 ching-cha
or the swinging festival, during which four Brahmins
with conical hats swing on a board suspended from a
frame hundred feet high. The swinging festival exists
in India even in the present day. The third Brahma-
nic festival is the Loi Kathong (Afloat—raft), when
rafts and ships with lights and offerings are offered to
the Menam to be carried down to the sea.
In some cases the Buddhist and Hindu rites have
been intermixed, specially in the ceremony of Konchuk
or of shaving the topknot Col. Gerini has given an
elaborate description of the tonsure rites in his Chula-
k&nt&mangalam (Bangkok, 1893).
It is interesting to note that we have the story of
the R&mayana illustrated on the walls of the royal
temple at Bangkok. The Siamese sculptors even now
make images of Yomma:rat (=Yama ruja), P/iaya
Man (-Mara}> P/tra : In (=Indra). The Brahmanic
idea of Mount Meru as the centre of this universe is
accepted in Siamese religious books and paintings.