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‘Amazing Thailand’ Festival Presented Germany With The Beauty of Thai Culture

With Food, Dance, Music, and Sport Performances, Thai Culture Was Once Again the Protagonist of Bod Hamborg

August 18th, 2016
Laura Serra, News from Berlin
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Sponsored by the Royal Thai Embassy and the Royal Thai Consulate-General, the 8th edition of the ‘Amazing Thailand’ festival took place in Bad Homburg’s Kurpark from July 30th to 31st 2016. More than 50 stands offered a wide variety of products suitable for all ages. Thai cuisine was presented with all its richness and colourfulness, along with grasps of the most beautiful holiday destinations in Thailand. The Sala-Thai located in the Kurpark witnessed several and diverse cultural programs, which ranged from music, to dance, to Thai boxing.

This year’s theme was the “Songkran Festival”, or water festival, held every year in Thailand from the 13th to the 15th of April. Celebrations included the building of a Sand Pagoda, particularly representative in Thai culture that when the faithful visit the temple, the grains of sand that have adhered to their shoes are taken away from it. In Buddhism, this is seen as sin. Therefore, the sand must be returned to build a new temple each year to restore a good karma.

Dance performances were accompanied by Pong Lang music, a special instrument from the northeast of Thailand, along with sport performances that included Muaythai (Thai boxing) and the traditional fight show with swords and sticks. To embrace Thai culture even more, Ban Seansuk eV organized a raffle for participants, with the possibility to win a package price that included flights and accommodation from Germany to Bangkok.

German-Thai relations date back to 1907, when King Chulalongkorn fell ill and travelled to Homburg in search for a cure. Out of gratitude, he dismantled a temple in Bangkok and gifted it to the German town. Because parts of the temple were sent individually, some went missing and the inauguration ceremony took place in 1914, in the presence of Prince Mahidol of Siam. King Chulalongkorn, who eager to see the building completed unfortunately died before construction was finished. His gift, however, laid the foundations of what became a close friendship between Thailand and Bad Homburg.

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News from Berlin