For the love of a Princess
Written by Writer on Monday, November 10th, 2008
For the love of a Princess
Sirikul Bunnag meets a community playing a key role in the royal cremation ceremony
When mourners flock to Sanam Luang on Saturday to present dokmai chan, sandalwood flowers, at the royal crematorium site of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana, Sanit Nakwatchara will be there to bid farewell and take pride in his labour of love.
Sanit Nakwatchara with a pile of ‘mok man’ logs, the raw materials for sandalwood flower production.
Hundreds of thousands of sandalwood flowers to be distributed to mourners paying last respects to the Princess at Sanam Luang and at temples across the nation were produced by Mr Sanit’s Tuek Daeng community in Bang Sue district.
“I will attend the royal cremation ceremony on Saturday at Sanam Luang to pay my last respects to the Princess.
“There I will admire our community’s sandalwood flowers. I can tell by just looking which ones came from our community, which ones were made by my family and which ones were made by my own hands,” he said.
Mr Sanit said the Tuek Daeng community has been making sandalwood flowers for about half a century. His family was among the first to get into the business in 1959.
Over the past 50 years the community has gradually built up a strong identity, known for the sandalwood flowers it produces.
All are wooden - made from mok man trees (Wrightia arborea) - not the paper flowers which are widely available and much easier to make.
Mr Sanit said he has to go upcountry to look for mok man trees, which are commonly found in Phetchaburi and Uthai Thani provinces.
An artisan at Tuek Daeng community shaves wood into thin sheets for sandalwood flowers.
“Mok man is softwood which is creamy white and perfect for making sandalwood flowers,” he said.
Most of the mok man trees used in making sandalwood flowers for the royal cremation on Saturday are from Uthai Thani.
The trunks are first cleaned to rid them of dirt, sawed into 90-centimetre-long pieces and then shaved into thin sheets. The shavings - as thin as paper sheets - are folded into flowers.
Mr Sanit said making sandalwood flowers is not a profitable business - a stack of 50 sheets can be sold for as little as 20 baht - which is why after 30 years in the business he is still in debt.
The business can be painful, said Mr Sanit. Four months ago he was forced to temporarily stop work after a mok man tree fell on top of him.
“But I never think about quitting. It is a job that keeps us going,” he said.
“And it is about workmanship. It needs a trained eye to select the trees. It needs a trained hand to saw the wood.”
A teenager measures a piece of sandalwood against a stick. One stick’s length of sandalwood is enough to make one flower. Photos byTHITI WANNAMONTHA
Mr Sanit said Tuek Daeng has become the country’s largest producer of sandalwood flowers.
The number of families making the flowers has grown from 30 to 40 to more than 1,000.
Buapai Tamplup, 65, a member of the Tuek Daeng community, said that her family and their neighbours have made about 320,000 sandalwood flowers for use in the royal cremation.
“We do every thing - sawing off the wood, folding the sheets into petals and tying them with candles,” she said.
Working from dawn through to late at night, each member make about 500 flowers a day.
Mrs Buapai said the sandalwood flowers are the community’s token of devotion, affection and loyalty.
“Some people might not see their value. To us, the sandalwood flowers are priceless and will accompany the Princess to heaven,” she said.
Mrs Buapai said her family made about 200,000 sandalwood flowers for the royal cremation of HRH the Princess Mother in 1996.
When Princess Galyani Vadhana passed away on Jan 2, the family made 4,000 sandalwood flowers and presented them to the Royal Household Bureau when paying respects to the Princess at the Grand Palace.
She said that her family will continue making sandalwood flowers from mok man trees to preserve the local knowledge of making wood flowers, even though the process is complicated.
“The wood flowers are more durable than paper flowers.
“They are original and charming,” she said.
Bangkok Post
Monday November 10, 2008
