Initiation Ceremony for a new building

P'Jiap is commissioning a new building similar in size to my farm. He has consulted Buddhist monk to pick an auspicious date to start the construction - something didn't occurred to me. So it gave me an opportunity to witness a traditional ceremony in initiating a new construction. It was 27th April at 9am.

I arrived 15min before time, workers were draining water off the pile heads.














P'Jiap was preparing the prayer table with offerings of chicken, duck and some Thai desserts, similar to traditional Chinese practice my mum did on festive occasions.



















The crane was standing by.














A young banana & sugar cane plant were tied to one end the steel columns; both are fast growing plants to signify expeditious completion of the building.














Asked P'Jiap to pose before the ceremony begins.



















Of course P'Moo too, he is always supportive and present on such occasion.



















Came 9am, P'Jiap and his mother started to offer prayers.














Next joss sticks were hand over to Chang Ou, the builder.














Guess he would pray for the safety of his workers at site.














There were 8 wooden pegs, each with some Buddhist scripture & specific instruction to place them around the the first column.














Two pegs were hammered into the ground on each side.



















Then gold foils were placed around the the pile head














The ceremony over, the crane hoisted the first steel column up.














Workers erected timber to hold it in place.



















Soon both were up and secured.



















We break for lunch and by noon, almost half the steel columns were set up - pretty fast.














I wandered around the back yard, found this brood of puppies catching a nap before my presence woke them up.