Songkran celebration at Chiang Tung

Essential for the Songkran ceremony, is a twenty-four-hour drumming ritual performed by the earthborn Tai Loi people. The drumming is done under constantly water-splashing, for the wealth and prosperity of Chiang Tung and the Tai Khuen people.

After blessing of the drum, the stick is handed over to the Loi people. From then on, the drumming continues, with constantly water-splashing, from noon the first day until noon the next day. This is done by about fifteen to twenty, mostly young, Loi men.

The last day's huge procession down to the river by thousands of people under constant water splashing, includes the Nanda Bayri (the drum of luck and prosperity) and a statue of the god Indra. A frog made of clay and mud are waiting down at the river. 

Down by the river, a symbolic intercourse between Indra and the female frog-spirit occur during constant drumming and water splashing. This will bring water from the mountain down to the valley of Chiang Tung, a necessity for a wet-rice agriculture society. A chaotic tumult follows, as young men try to catch some of the remnants of the Indra statue and a sacred frog. 

Read more at my article: The Songkran Festival in Chiang Tung: A Symbolic Performance of Domination and Subordination between Lowland Tai and Hill Tai. Tai Culture 23(2013): 50-62.