Believe it or not Lablae is well known as the widows’ village and the village that will not welcome people who tell lie. Why the village names Lablae. Why the village has a very mysterious stories. Why many strangers get lost when they visit the village without local people. Let me take you to investigate and prove the truth that it is reliable or unreliable to believe its story.
Lablae Village
Lablae “a hidden city” or “The Land of Fantasy” as Lablae word means fail to see. “Lablae” is presumed that Phrae and Nan people escaped enemies and trouble to settle in this area due to a thick forest, easily to hide and its topography is the town in a valley. Routines in this area very crook and make people who do not know well about routines can easily get lost. Moreover, it is believed that only people who make merit can see this town.
I am proud to represent Lablae’s legend why it is well known as the widows’ town and why people will not tell lie.
ขอเพียงสัจจะวาจา
แม่ม่ายเมืองลับแล หญิงที่ควรยกย่อง เชิดชูยึดมั่นในคุณความดี ยอมเสียสละความรักเพื่อธำรงจารีตประเพณีของการรักษาวาจาสัตย์ไว้ซึ่งคุณสมบัติของชาวเมืองลับแล ทุกคน
Long long time ago, there was a man went into a forest and met many beautiful women who had leaves in their hands were walking from the forest. When they reached the edge of the forest, they hid those leaves in various forest corners and went back to the town. The man was full of doubtfulness therefore he kept one leaf. In the afternoon, those women came back and tried to find their leaves that they hid them. When they got their leaves, they disappeared. One woman could not find her leaf because the man kept it so she was very worried and the man appeared and gave it back to her but she had to allow him to follow due to the desire to see Mueng Lablae. When the man came to Mueng Labla, he noticed that inside the village had only women. The woman described, “Villagers are morals and honest, whoever misbehaves, that person must get out from the village. Most of the men not keep them words so all of them must get out.” After that the woman took the man to meet her mother, the man fell in love her and asked the woman’s mother to permit him to marry the woman, she permitted, but the man needed to promise that he would be moral and not tell lie. The lablae woman delivered a lovely son.
Someday, the wife was not home and the husband needed to take care of his son, but the child cried all the time so the man soothed, “Your mother is coming.” When the mother-in-law heard that she was very angry with him as he lied. When her daughter came back, she told he daughter that your husband lied. The woman was very sad that her husband did not keep his words therefore she told him to leave the village. The woman prepared food for her husband while he was journeying together with dig many curcumas and put them into his bag. Then she took her husband at the edge of the forest and she returned to Meung Lablae. While the man was walking, he wondered why his bag was very heavy so he took curcumas and threw them away. When he arrived his village, there was only one curcuma so he took it but the curcuma became gold. The man was very surprised and deplored as well as tried to return to find those curcumas, but they had already grown. Therefore, the man decided to dig, but there were common curcumas, not gold. Finally, he tried to return to Mueng Lablae, but he could not find and went back his village.
There is the old tradition that Lablae people conserve for generations to generations.
“Kang Pu Ya” Ceremony
As you see that villagers remain their old tradition which is called Kang Pu Ya. This ceremony is quite similar to the Chinese Qingming Festival (Chinese take time on this day to visit graves, mausoleums and crematoriums to perform prayers, ceremonies and rituals to honor ancestors.) but celebrated in traditional Thai style includes a colorful procession on inner and outer routes of two local temples (Wat Chedi Kiriviharn and Wat Patum Kongka) which is a very unique festival celebration in Uttaradit province where the local communities pay homage to their ancestors during Khao Phansa (Buddhist Lent) also called Rains Retreat. During this period of time, the monks stay in the temple during the rainy season lasting for three lunar months from July to October. For the algorithm, the villagers have chosen to cling more on their rich traditional past by offering local fruits and even tree samplings such as the signature breeds Lablae durian, mangos teen and langsat (Longan), an classification of tropical flowers and daily essential items like pens, tobacco, etc beautifully decorated and place on a wooden sedan chair. After the ceremony, all items are donated to respective temples.
Lablae Signatures
Beside its unique culture heritage, Mueang Lablae is blessed with a fertile land that could produce crops all year round and most of Lablae villagers earn their living from farming and planting. The villagers call their local mountain the ‘Edible Mountain’ or ‘Puu Khao Kin Dai’ in Thai. It is famous for its langsat, durian, and shallot.
Signature breeds Lablae durians
Langsat is the famous fruit of Uttaradit
Lablae villagers’ free time
During free time, the villagers of Mueang Lablae also produce genuine handicrafts for sale to earn unearned income for the family such as Teenchok cloth weaving, traditional wooden toys, blanket, Tongkong sweeper which has brought fame to Mueang Lablae as well.
Traditional wooden toys
Teenchok cloth weaving by local Tai Yuan women
Khao Pun Phak is a famous local food in Lablae From a view point, Mueang Lablae is a simple rural village and surrounded with rice fields, gardens, wooden houses and temples and Lablae villagers live peacefully and welcoming visitors with friendly smile.
All questions that you are wondering are obviously cleared after the seriously studying about this investigation. For me, I do not care that the Lablae’s story is real or not but I think the most important of the Lablae’s legend has moral teaching internal the story that is the legend is composed to teach many people to appreciate the thing that they have such as the man is not appreciate curcumas that his wife give them to him and leaves them but finally they become gold, to keep their words (like the man who has to leave from Mueang Lablae as he tells lie) and not to be greedy (like the man in the story that he tries to return to find curcumas due to the willingness of getting more gold ). The legend has advantages to many people who would like to apply the legend’s moral teaching to teach their children that those children will become a good youth of their country. Furthermore, you will see that Lablae villagers preserve their old traditions and inherit their ancestors’ intention about folk wisdom. If you have an opportunity to visit Uttaradit especially Meaung Lablae because you will see many excited things and you will taste a very delicious famous food like Khao Pun Phak. I surly affirm that if you would like to meet fantastic village, please do not hesitate to visit here but do not forget to go with local people as you can easily get lost.
