Among the Shan peoples, in Burma and now in Northern Thailand, the Poy Sang Long ceremony is a rite of passage undergone by boys at some point between seven and fourteen years of age. It consists of taking novice monastic vows and participating in monastery life for a period of time that can vary from a week to many months or more. Usually, a large group of boys are ordained as novice monks at the same time: in the photo, a Shan boy living in Chiang Mai is getting ordained with another 117 boys during the same festival. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (784x1944, 133 KB) Summary Shan boy in northern Thailand undergoing Poy Sang Long initiation rite. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (784x1944, 133 KB) Summary Shan boy in northern Thailand undergoing Poy Sang Long initiation rite. ... A rite of passage is a ritual that marks a change in a persons social or sexual status. ...
The Shan (or Thai-Yai) are originally from the Shan States in Burma, and speak a language closely related to Thai. There is almost no published literature which could help interested parties to learn the language. As the government in Burma has gone from bad to worse, conscripting young men at random to work on the roads or serve in the army (both without pay), the young men have increasingly taken their lives in their own hands and fled to Thailand, where they can perform the same gruelling kinds of work WITH pay -- and without the threat of random conscription.
They have brought their amazingly colorful Poy Sang Long ceremony to northern Thailand. The ceremony goes on for three days, as the boys (dressed up like princes in imitation of the Lord Buddha, who was himself a prince before setting out on the religious path) spend the entire time being carried around on the shoulders of their older male relatives: princes, indeed! On the third day, they are ordained, and enter the monastery for a period of at least one week -- and perhaps many years.
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