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By ANDREA FILMER and SITI HASLINA MAT DAUD
north@thestar.com.my Photos by GARY CHEN and LIM BENG TATT

AT the Songkran Festival, no attendee is spared. Just walking near the vicinity of Burma Lane in Penang during this annual Water Festival will guarantee you a drenching of some sort.

Thousands gathered on this street, where the Chaiya Mangala-ram Thai Buddhist Temple (Recli-ning Buddha) and Dhammika-rama Burmese Buddhist Temple are facing each other, in conjunction with the first day of the Thai New Year.

Every kind of water apparatus — from simple bottles, buckets and hoses to more elaborate water sprays and brightly-coloured toy water guns — was seen as revellers did their best to soak each other to the bone.

Revellers getting soaked by other merrymakers from on top of a lorry outside the Chaiya Mangalaram Thai Buddhist Temple on Burma Lane.

While cleansing by water is symbolic to the festival to wash away all that is bad, the smearing of white and yellow chalk was also common as a sign of marking blessings.

Locals were in attendance at the celebration on Burma Lane, but the large majority of merrymakers were migrant workers from Thailand and Myanmar who were seen walking to the celebration or arriving in large buses and company vans.

A tourist getting her fisrt taste of what Songkran is all about.

“We took the day off to celebrate. We can’t miss the New Year!” said one Thai national.

Foreign tourists and pressmen, who arrived at the party, were also not spared in the wet onslaught.

A young boy holding his own in a water fight and runs through a "gauntlet of fire" while retreating.

Ukrainian tourist Zelenevskaya Julia, who was smiling despite being soaking wet, said the Songkran Festival was amazing as many youths participated fully in it.

“I love Penang. The temples are beautiful, the sites are beautiful.

“Frankly speaking, I like everything here!” the 24-year-old said, adding that she was here on a three-day trip to the state.

Earlier in the day, monks at the Chaiya Mangalaram Thai Buddhist Temple offered prayers to usher in the New Year.

Kai and and his wife Miya seeking blessings from a Buddhist statue at the Chaiya Mangalaram Thai Buddhist Temple on Burma Lane.

Consul-General of Thailand Voradet Viravakin and Consul-General of Japan Tetsuro Kai were also present to seek bles-sings from Buddhist statues outside the temple.

The temple’s festival organising committee chairman Wallapa Buranawijarn also presented RM10,000 charity donations to each Consul-General.

“Aside from the water festival, it is our tradition to do charity on New Year’s Day.

“This year, we are giving RM10,000 from the temple’s donations to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims, as well as another RM10,000 to the victims of the flood in Southern Thailand that happened about three weeks ago.”

She added that although New Year celebrations in Thailand lasted at least three days, only the first day was significantly marked with activities for Thais staying in Malaysia.

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Posted by admin on April 14, 2011 under Tourism News.