Photo Essays | Society | Southeast Asia
The annual bung bang fai festival calls on the god Phaya Thaen to bring rain at the start of the agricultural season.
Rocket team members celebrate as their yee sip lan (20 million) class size bung fai talai gondola rocket, the festival’s largest with a diameter of 10 meters, lifts off during the annual bun bang fai festival in Ban Kut Wa, Kalasin province, Thailand, May 17, 2026.
At the start of the rainy season a unique cultural practice takes place in northeastern Thailand and throughout Laos: the bung bang fai (merit fireworks) festival. The centuries old tradition has existed as a pre-Buddhist fertility ritual since before the 9th century CE, with the rocket element thought to have started when black powder was introduced to the region from China.
The rockets are launched to implore the god Phaya Thaen to bring rain at the start of the agricultural season. In its contemporary iteration, locals in small villages and regional cities put on numerous bun bang fai festivals in May and June as multi-day celebrations including parades and traditional music and dance performances, with the last day seeing the launching of rockets at a location near open area rice fields away from population centers.
