Brotherly Villages Boat Race
The Wang Thong river was historically the site for a boat race between the villagers of Ban Wang Thong and Ban Saphan. The race took place annually in November after the rainy season. The original boat race was discontinued prior to the 1940s. In 1982, a plan to reintroduce the Brotherly Villages Boat Race was discussed by senior local officials, the traders of the Wang Thong Market, farmer organizations and the abbot of Wat Bang Saphan to promote the unity of the community. Rather than having one village compete against the other as in earlier days, the new boat race involves competition between local farmer and village organizations. The first race in the reborn competition was opened by District Officer Naaj Amphoe. The present form of the boat race involves less ritual activities than the pre-1940s races.
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“The weak and misbegotten shall perish: first principle of our brotherly love. And they shall be given every assistance.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The boat is made of dry reeds, and a monkey is steering it.”
—Punjabi proverb, trans. by Gurinder Singh Mann.
“[It is possible] that the race of red men ... will, before many generations, be remembered only as a strange, weird, dream-like specter, which has passed once before the eyes of men, but had departed forever.”
—James A. Garfield (1831–1881)