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Banana Festival, Kamphaeng Phet

    Kamphaeng Phet is well know as the center of the best area for growing bananas in Thailand. According to Thai tradition, the banana or kluai khai is the fruit for merit making of the 10th lunar month, which is called Sat Thai. The festival takes place annually in front of the city hall. Highlights include an exhibition of local products, floats adorned with bananas, Krayasat (the festival's food) cooking demonstrations, sales of agricultural products and a variety of entertainment at night.

Kluai Khai, an important product of Kamphaeng Phet


A kind of home decorative items from Kluai Khai City
Sat is a Thai festival held at the end of the tenth month of the year when it is supposed to be an autumn and the rice stalks in the field are starting to yield their young seeds. Thai folk cook a kind of sweet clled krayasat of which rice is the main ingredient and offer it to the monks. It is believed that by offering this good merit the paddy field will be blessed as well as the farmers themselves. Besides, the result of the merit will further console the souls of loved ones who have passed away. It is said that the same behavior is also found in India where people cook matu-payas, wheat boiled in milk, and offer it to the Bhramin, a religious sect in India.
Sat festival has been a strong rite in a long history of the Thai people. Even today, Thais in the central region and some other regional provinces never cease practicing the ritual of the Sat tradition, to conserve it for the cultural heritage of the next generation.
Krayasat is made in a special way. If it is cooked correctly it may be kept for months. Otherwise, the sweet may be watery and loose and easily go sour.
The right ingredients of krayasat are as follows: Mung bean of Green gram, peanut, white sesame, shredded rice grain, popped rice, ribbon grass, thick liquid of sugar cane and plam sugar, honey and flourpaste. The mixing of all these ingredients and stiirring it to make krayasat should be done in one day so that the result of good merit will have a strong effect. It is belived that if the time of cooking krayasat extends overnight it will get less blessing.
Krayasat is tastier when it is eaten together with a small banana called "Kluai Khai" especially a medium one with black dots all over. This kind of banana is grown a lot in Kamphaeng Phet and its quality is the best. The Festtival of Sat Thai, Kluai Khai, Kamphaeng Phet Day have thus been organized since 1982 to promote the product of Kluai Khai, the small banana and to conserve the old traditional practices.
The most attractive spectacle, the Sat Thai, Kluai Khai, Kamphaeng Phet Festtival, will be the pageant of Kluai Khai Beauty Queen and the beauty contest. Other interesting events are the contests of Kluai Khai eating, krayasat cooking, and the best rice. People will offer krayasat and robes to the monks as usual. Buddha amulets contest, sales of agricultural products and a variety of entertainment at night are included in the event for those who love the folk of life.
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Information : Tourism Authority of Thailand, Tel. (02) 694-1222, E-mail : tat@cs.ait.ac.th
: Tourist Service Center (TAT and Tourist Police), Tel. 1155
: Tasanee Yawaprapas & Uthorm Sriphantha, Kinnaree, Thai Airways International, september 1998, P. 40-42.

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