Phi Ta Khon (Thai: ผีตาโขน; phǐi taa khǒn; [pʰǐː taː kʰǒn]) is a festival held in Dan Sai, Loei province, Isan, Thailand.
01 · What it is
Living Tradition
Documented cultural tradition on record; family classification awaits an editor.
02 · Where & name
Thailand
Written in its own script on record as ผีตาโขน.
03 · How it is doing
□□□□ (Not yet assessed)
Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
04 · Proof & reuse
1 cited source
Every claim links to a public record below. Free to quote, teach, and share under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Common Questions Answered on Record
What is Phi Ta Khon in plain words?
Phi Ta Khon (Thai: ผีตาโขน; phǐi taa khǒn; [pʰǐː taː kʰǒn]) is a festival held in Dan Sai, Loei province, Isan, Thailand. In local script on record, it is written ผีตาโขน.
Where is Phi Ta Khon practised or documented?
Sources on this page place Phi Ta Khon in Thailand.
What is the current condition of Phi Ta Khon today?
□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
How do I cite or share this Phi Ta Khon entry?
Cite as: "Phi Ta Khon." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/phi-ta-khon, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.
Phi Ta Khon (Thai: ผีตาโขน; phǐi taa khǒn; [pʰǐː taː kʰǒn]) is a festival held in Dan Sai, Loei province, Isan, Thailand. The events take place over three days sometime between March and July, the dates being selected annually by the town’s mediums.
The whole event is called Bun Luang, part of a Buddhist merit-making holiday also known as Bun Phawet (assembly day). The town’s residents invite protection from Phra U-pakut, the spirit of the Mun river. They then hold a series of games and take part in a procession wearing masks made of the sheaths or bottom part of thick palm leaf stems. Bamboo sticky rice steaming baskets are stitched onto the tops of the sheaths to make the top section of the mask. Artists paint the masks with very creative and intricate designs and add carved wooden noses and ear-like appendages. The dancers wear loose and colorful patchwork pants and shirts, with strings of bells hanging down from their belts, in the back. They tease the spectators with big wooden phalluses.
The origins of this part of the festival are traditionally ascribed to a story of the Vessantara Jataka in which the Buddha in one of his past lives as a prince made a long journey and was presumed dead. The celebrations on his return were so raucous as to wake the dead.
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Phi Ta Khon”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
Phi Ta Khon is group of festivals held in Dan Sai, Thailand, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 1
The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. 1
