Tam Bun in Wat Noong Na, Thailand

Almost all thai people are buddhists, and they have lots of rituals, of which one is Tam Bun. That means some days at dawn they gather to the local temple to offer food to the monks. They give the best they can afford, and then some. This morning there were more than usual – some monks high up in the monk hierarchy were visiting them. The local people line up in two rows often more than 100 meters long outside the temple. Then the monks walk between the rows, and the local worshippers offer them food as they walk by. The food is received in bowls.

The monks have people from the local temple to help them. These helpers let the monks empty their bowls into large buckets and casseroles and carries it away onto nearby trucks. This way the monks can receive a little donation from everyone attending even when there are many hundred people participating.

I have been watching this a few times, and it is always a fascinating event. These people, of which many in this panorama are my friends and family, are so happy to give away the food, it makes them smile for a long time afterwards.

This year I photographed lots of panoramas at one Tam Bun in my local temple. Then, 3 weeks later I discovered that most of the datafiles from one of my memorycards were severely corrupted (beyond repair) during transfer to my external hard disk. When I came home to Norway and tried to stitch them together I realised only 2 (out of many) panoramas were left from this event, of which this panorama is probably the best. OK, it's far from technically perfect, but it is the most difficult to make and technically challenging panorama I have made to date. With so many moving people and things going on around me, I feel very lucky I captured the mood of this moment and I am very happy it all came together as good as this.

Asia / Thailand

Lat: 14° 35' 49.93" N
Long: 99° 59' 55.65" E

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Canon EOS 30D, Sigma 8mm f3.5 EX DG. Ext Hard drive. Panosaurus head, Manfrotto tripod. iMac G4 17" 800mhz. PTMac, Photoshop CS2, Cubic Converter.