Maha Sarakham Celebrates Bun Sam Ha Festival With Commemorative Coins
Maha Sarakham Municipality held its annual Bun Sam Ha festival June 8-10, 2024, a northeastern Thai tradition to purify homes and communities by honoring local deities. The celebration included evening chanting ceremonies, morning alms offe
Maha Sarakham Municipality and the Maha Sarakham Provincial Cultural Office jointly organized the traditional Bun Sam Ha festival, also known as the seventh lunar month merit-making ceremony, at the Kan Thorawit Monastery grounds within the municipal area from June 8-10, 2025. The event attracted large numbers of government officials, merchants, students, and residents.
The Bun Sam Ha festival is conducted to cleanse homes, communities, and the body of misfortune, purifying the mind of spiritual contamination. Activities include rituals honoring the city's guardian spirits, evening Buddhist chanting of auspicious verses following northeastern tradition. In the seventh lunar month, residents worship the protective deities of the city and seek their blessings for the safety and prosperity of the community, asking for protection from various calamities.
On the merit-making day, community members gather at the village hall bringing flowers, incense, candles, water vessels, sand containers, and white thread. Monks chant Buddhist sutras in the evening. The next morning, Buddhists bring rice, fish, and food to make merit through alms offerings to the monks. After the monks finish their meal, they offer blessings and sprinkle sacred water on participants. Everyone takes home blessed water, sacred thread, and sand to sprinkle in their homes, on family members and pets. The thread is tied around the arms of children and family members, believed to bring happiness and good fortune, while the sand is scattered around homes and fields to ward off pests and misfortune.
Another benefit of the Bun Sam Ha festival is that when villagers gather in large numbers, they often take the opportunity to collectively improve village roads, sweep, and clean the community. This creates unity and solidarity among residents.
Bun Sam Ha is a valuable northeastern tradition that deserves to be preserved for future generations. For the 2025 Bun Sam Ha festival, Maha Sarakham Municipality commissioned commemorative coins titled "Vitarka Mudra Buddha Coin: Taking Precepts with Great Merit." These coins serve as keepsakes of the festival and generate revenue for the Maha Sarakham Long Drum Association and local cultural events, with proceeds also supporting scholarships for outstanding students.
The rectangular coins feature the Buddha standing with raised hands in the Vitarka Mudra gesture (teaching or exposition posture), with two disciples on either side paying respects. The reverse bears sacred script and the text "Commemorative coin of Bun Sam Ha festival, preserving Maha Sarakham's destiny."
Production quantities are extremely limited: 20 gold sets (by special order), 9 silver coins, 100 alpaca coins, 100 base metal coins, 500 gold leaf coins, 700 copper coins, 100 brass coins, and 400 lead coins for distribution.
The consecration ceremony took place at the Kan Thorawit Monastery on June 10, 2025, attended by respected monks including Luang Ta Kap from Baan Upraj Temple and Luang Por Manunchay Manunphro from Wat Paa Satthadham. Phra Thammavichikar, the Provincial Circuit Advisor, lit the ceremonial candles to begin the ritual, and Luang Por Manunchay extinguished them, concluding the ceremony.
