since then it become my favorite music, even when I write this blog, it is on…

I like music in this style… last time when I visit to Thailand, in Jatujak I found one shop that sell their traditional music CDs I bought one … I think it is very nice also… however, my wife said that it is ‘stressful’ compared to sape music…

Anyone like music which is very peaceful and relax, I highly recommend Solo Sape by Tuyang Tan Ngan.

I found one video upload by someone in youtube… it is played by Tuyang Tan Ngan as well… maybe this can give you some idea how his Sape sound like.

In case you like this music and want to buy one, I am not aware of where you can get it (other than sarawak)… I bought mine in a shop near the ‘riverside’… there are one shop which sell lots of craft and this shop have few CDs on Sape… The seller is quite nice, he can recommend some for you.

Talking about Sape, I just know that actually lots of people like their music… here is one article from local paper..

Sape goes global
By STEPHEN THEN

MIRI: The Baram Regatta 2008 will take on an international flavour for the first time in its century-old history.

The event will feature sape players from England, Kalimantan in Indonesia, Brunei and local Chinese and Malays who have become experts in playing this Orang Ulu guitar-like musical instrument.

The Baram Regatta, as the name implies, will be held along the mighty Baram River in the interior town of Marudi, 200km inland from Miri, on Aug 16 and 17.

This historical event marks a peace accord reached by warring Orang Ulu tribes in 1899 that ended the ancient practice of head hunting.
Versatile: File photo of Emma Ruran Raja of the Kelabit folk band Kan’id playing the sape at the recent Rainforest World Music Festival in Santubong, Sarawak.

The Orang Ulu, made up of the Kenyah, Kayan, Kelabit and other minority groups, beheaded their enemies as a sign of bravery and conquest.

In 1899, the Brooke rulers helped seal a pact among the tribes to end this gruesome practice.

To mark the pact, they staged the Baram Regatta to engage each other in water sports like longboat rowing, rafting and swimming.

In later years, sape competitions were held to test each others’ cabilities in playing the musical instrument.

Telang Usan assemblyman Lihan Jok said this year’s sape competition will be held simultaneously with the water sports.

In Thai or siamese community in Malaysia, they believed that in certain days in the year, the hungry ghost (or preta) is released from hell and they visit the human world. During this time, they will have a ceremony which basically offer food for donation to the monk with the hope that any of their relative or ancestors which may get into the hungry ghost realms to get some food from them.

In wiki, hungry ghost or preta is describe as below:

In Buddhist Psychology at least, Hungry Ghosts are ghosts only in the sense of not being fully alive; not fully capable of living and appreciating what the moment has to offer. Although the Eastern terminology and metaphor is very different, the concept has strong parallels with similar concepts in Western Psychology.

In his book Thoughts Without a Thinker, Mark Epstein paints a picture connecting these two viewpoints:

The Hungry Ghosts are probably the most vividly drawn metaphors in the Wheel of Life. Phantomlike creatures with withered limbs, grossly bloated bellies, and long thin necks, the Hungry Ghosts in many ways represent a fusion of rage and desire. Tormented by unfulfilled cravings and insatiably demanding of impossible satisfactions, the Hungry Ghosts are searching for gratification for old unfulfilled needs whose time has passed. They are beings who have uncovered a terrible emptiness within themselves, who cannot see the impossibility of correcting something that has already happened. Their ghostlike state represents their attachment to the past

This ceremony can be seen every year in any siamese temple in Malaysia. Some of you might think that it is very ‘old believed’ and it is not even practices in many location even in Thailand, however I think it is an interesting and ‘exotic’ culture which is hard to be seen in other places.

Here is some photo that I take during the visit.

Monk chanting in the ceremony – the ceremony start with the chanting.

The money for donation is stick to the ‘tree’.

The buddhist believed that if they do good things, they can transfer part of the merit to the death.

Paying respect to their ancestor.

Having lunch. Each ‘family’ normally will bring their own lunch then eat together.

After pray, they will bring food to a ‘stage’. This is to symbolise that they offer the food to the preta – hungry ghost.

closer view for the stage

Another view

Some family will make a wish and transfer merit near the stage.

Every food that is presented, will have jostick stick to it.

In Kedah, they will have someone dress as hungry ghost – preta, coming to the stage to take the food. This is to symbolise it.

another view

Normally kids will come and take the food offered at the stage in the end of the ceremony.

There are teenager which place some music to entertain the visitor to the ceremony. This is new things which has been added to the ceremony. Not all temple will have this.

Since there are many peoples, some take the opportunity to sell some goods in a ‘temporary stall’.

A food stall.

This is a unique culture in Malaysia. Not many Malaysian that even know about it. If you visit Malaysia and have a chances to see it, do not missed it.

RM500-a-day bird-watch guides in Sabah

By : Jaswinder Kaur

KOTA KINABALU: The income they earn is definitely not for the birds. The specialist guides who help bird-watchers spot the diverse species in Sabah can earn up to an incredible RM500 a day.

Borneo Bird Club pro tem chairman Cede Prudente said at present there were five people in the state who could provide this specialised service.

“More bird-watchers are coming here but we just don’t have enough experts to help them find and identify the birds.

“In the next 10 years, we may need 500 specialist guides. We hope to develop the field with the locals.

“There are more than two million bird-watching enthusiasts in Britain alone.

“Although we have many species of birds here, we are way behind in exploiting what could be a goldmine.”

Prudente was speaking at the Borneo Bird Festival exhibition at 1Borneo Hypermall here yesterday. The two-day exhibition includes talks by experts on the types of birds in Sabah and the 622 resident and migratory species found on Borneo Island.

Prudente said the club, launched a week ago, was keen to work with the Sabah Wildlife Department and the Sabah Forestry Department to train locals to become bird guides.

“One of the reasons we are holding this exhibition here is because we want to promote bird-watching among residents.

“We also want to promote places like the Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sandakan which are good for bird-watching.”

Sabah Society Sandakan branch chairman Arthur Chung said there was a lot of potential in bird-watching as a tourism product.

“The Sepilok forest (in Sandakan) has close to 290 bird species.”

I manage to take some photo, but not all of the functions today.

However, before I go further, some of you may not aware of what is katina ceremony is, I get this information from the net and it describe what is katina:

Katina Ceremony
By Ven Panditha M. Dhammagavesi

First of all I would like to draw your attention to the history of observing VAS (rainy) retreat. Secondly, about the Kathina ceremony and finally, the benefits of performing it.

For the first twenty years of establishment of The Order of the Sangha (Sangha community) the Buddha did not have to lay down any kind of disciplinary rules for monks, because the Sangha community was not so large, they were not too old in the Order and also their main intention was to eradicate defilements to lead a pure life. With the increasing of the Sangha community some of them entered The Order with the intention of obtaining material gains. Some of them did not know what they should or should not to do for their spiritual upliftment. Therefore, there was a need to implement some rules to correct them and show them the right way to practice for their welfare and also for the welfare of those who would enter in to the order.

Most of the monks did not stay in one place for a long time. They would travel from place to place, from village to village, from suburb to suburb practicing meditation, preaching and teaching, encouraging and stimulating people to engage in Dhamma. They did not stop travelling even during the rainy period of the year. During that time there were some other religious groups as well. One of them was Nighanta natha puthta and his disciples. They went to the extreme of practicing Ahimsa.i.e. they considered even grass as a living being and therefore did not walk about on grass for fear of killing them. They stayed indoors during the rainy season without walking anywhere so that they would not cause death or harm to any living thing. Under these circumstances Buddha and his disciples were accused of travelling during the period of rainy months. Taking into consideration this accusation and recollecting the actions of previous Buddhas, he advised monks to go into retreat during the rainy season starting from the day after the July Full moon.. Those who could not commence the retreat on this particular day due to unavoidable circumstances were advised to commence it following the August full moon. Each and every higher ordained monk is supposed to observe rainy retreat whether they were invited to do so or not by lay people and no matter where they live. The rainy period usually lasted for three months.

Monks are not allowed to use more than three robes during the Katina retreat.(The three robes are the inner robe, the outer robe and the double robe) When they get more robes they should be kept in the store.

On one occasion Vishakha Maha Upasika (The chief lay lady disciple) expressed her desire to offer a special piece of cloth to each monk and invite monks for Vas observation. Buddha accepted her invitation. Since then we have been following that custom. That is why people these days too invite monks to go into retreat and this is called Vas Aradana. This is done by offering a special piece of cloth at the beginning of the rainy period. From the beginning up to the end of this period monks are provided with food, domestic facilities, medicine and so on. These three months are very important for both monks and lay people because they could do more and more meritorious activities such as participate in dhamma sermons, dhamma discussions, meditation programs and Pirith chantings.

During Lord Buddha’s time a group of thirty monks went away from the place of retreat where The Buddha was to spend three months. At the conclusion of the retreat they returned to visit the Buddha. On the way they had to face heavy rains. They were in trouble. One of them got extremely wet. It was a very hard time for him. Some how they visited the Buddha. Seeing the monk whose robes were very wet the Buddha advised them to accept an extra robe as a KATHINA. The extra robe was always given to the one who needed it. (There are some rules to be observed by monks when using the kathina robe) If devotees offer a piece of cloth to monks in the name of kathina, the monks have to make a robe with that cloth on the same day. Lay people could do it as well. Offering of Kathina robe is considered as one of the greatest meritorious activities. Also whatever is offered on Kathina day, the same merit could be obtained by donors. That is why people make various types of
offerings on the day of the Kathina.

One of the stanzas chanted during Kathina glorifies the greatness of merit which one gets from performing Kathina. Even this solid Earth, or a solid rock or a piece of diamond could tremble, shake and break at times. However. the merit obtained by offering of kathina robe could not be nullified by any thing until one achieve the ultimate goal Nibbana. That is why

it is called KATINA. One of the disciples called NAGITHA expressed the glory of doing it. As a result of offering kathina robe to the MAHASANGA he was never been born in lower places (like the spirit world and the animal realm) and for the last thirty eons or KALPA he had been born in higher and blissful realms like the divine or human. The merit thus obtained was very helpful for him to realize the ultimate truth.

It is clearly mentioned in Buddhism that if one commits a GARUKA KAMMA which means serious unwholesome deeds such as:

1) Matricide
2) Patrricide
3) the Murder of an Arahant
4) the Wounding of Buddha
5) the Creation of Schism in the Sangha,

one has to undergo the unpleasant results during this life or in the next life immediately after death.

Even the merit of offering of Kthina robe cannot help such a person to avoid the suffering or bad karma. However the merit, the positive power of offering Kathina could reduce the negative effects of other minor bad deeds. Furthermore, one could be blessed with happiness, long life, good health, a good complexion, physical strength, and wisdom in this life and in the continuing lives in the cycle of rebirth until we achieve Nibbana.

Here is some photo that is taken during the ceremony:

Some of the ropes that the devotee donate to the temple

The chief monk starting the ceremony

Katina Tree. It made from banana tree and the devotee donate money and stick the donation money to the ‘tree’

Another view of the Katina tree

The devotee praying

There are lots of people that went there. Each of them will bring the kratong to ‘release’ it in the nearby lake, the Taman Tasik Jaya.

The ceremony start with the chanting by the monk and followed by the loy kratong ceremony. I manage to take some photo but not much of it as my camera is out of battery

I heard that tomorrow, there are one more ceremony which will be organize by PESILA at a lake in Kepong area (a lake nearby MRR2).

There are many belief about the loy kratong ceremony. Some people believed that it is a way to avoid bad luck, some belief that this ceremony is to make a respect for the river while some other belief that it is to show a respect for Buddha.

Here is some photo that I take during the visit:

The windy afternoon, watching some boats, sand and sea and flying kites… a good way to relax or spent your holiday at this place.

I post this in different posting and not in the Pantai Cahaya Bulan posting because, there are many beautiful kites photo that I take which I think it deserve to be in different post.

A kites above some food stall…

Below is some kites that is avaiable for sale:

The kites can come in different shape, size and colour…

Sometimes the seller do some ‘testing’ for the kites..