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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.408.1, Connecticut Historical S ...
Lao Food and Festival Bus Tour, 2006
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.408.1, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Lao Food and Festival Bus Tour, 2006

Subject (Laotian, died 2015)
Subject (Laotian)
Subject (Laotian)
Subject (Laotian)
Date2006 May 28
Mediumborn digital photography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.408.1-.25
Description2015.196.408.1-.9 are photographs from a bus tour visiting the East-West Grille in West Hartford, Connecticut.

2015.196.408.10-.25 are photographs from a bus tour visiting the Lao Temple in Morris, Connecticut.


2015.196.408.1: Image of Boualy Ratsombath holding khene for tour participants to view. The photo was taken inside of East-West Grille in West Hartford.

2015.196.408.2: Image of Boualy Ratsombath before his performance for the tour participants.

2015.196.408.3-.4: Images of Boualy Ratsombath being introduced by Manola Sidara, owner and chef of East-West Grille.

2015.196.408.5: Image of chef and owner of East-West Grille, Manola Sidara, with a tray of food being served to tour participants.

2015.196.408.6-.9: Images of Nancy Sayarath, a dancer from Lao Narthasin, performing.

2015.196.408.10-.13: Images of resident monk Khoutavong tying strings around the wrists of tour participants and Lao celebrants, in the mat khene ceremony, to symbolize well-being and connection.

2015.196.408.14-.16: Images of tour participants and Lao attendees at the outdoor festival at the temple, with one person wearing a traditional headdress from northern Laos.

2015.196.408.17-.19: Images of the deity statues and figures on the temple grounds.

2015.196.408.18: Image of a triangular object behind a rock covered in deity statues.

2015.196.408.19: Image of a rock covered in deity statues.

2015.196.408.20: Image of a wooden Buddhist fortune box inside the temple.

2015.196.408.21-.22: Images of the monks conducting the ceremony inside temple.

2015.196.408.23-.25: Images of the tour participants experiencing the festival on the temple grounds.
NotesSubject Note: The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CCHAP) at the Institute for Community Research collaborated with Manchester Community College (MCC) on a cultural tourism project in 2004-2008. Each year, three or four day-long bus tours visited cultural events and artist studios in ethnic communities living in different parts of the state as a way for new audiences to experience and meet Connecticut’s ethnic and occupational communities. Project goals included 1) expanding awareness of unfamiliar art forms and heritage tourism assets, 2) encouraging access to little-known ethnic or occupational communities, 3) creating audience and artist interactions, 4) stimulating sales and commissions of traditional arts and foods, and 5) developing new partnerships with community organizations and artists. The tours were developed and led by the Connecticut state folk arts program director, Lynne Williamson along with artists from each community. The partnership with MCC ensured that the tours were advertised in the Credit-Free Catalogue each semester. Audiences for the tours were primarily members of the Older Adults Association, a core audience for MCC’s Credit-Free courses.

Each day-long bus tour included a visit to folk artists’ studios or shops to observe them producing or selling their work, while engaging with visitors in discussions on the history of their communities and the background of their art form. Tours stopped at related landmarks and/or restaurants in the artists’ neighborhoods, or attended a local community festival. The artists and community groups visited gave insightful presentations on their cultures and artistic traditions. Each tour included a traditional dinner or lunch where visitors could sit down to eat and talk with the artists and community members. CCHAP received an NEA Challenge America Cultural Tourism grant for a pilot series of bus tours in 2004. Subsequent project funders also included the Greater Hartford Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

On Sunday, May 28, 2006, the Lao Food and Festival tour traveled to the new Lao temple and community center in Morris for Katin, the Water Purification Festival, a Buddhist celebration of spring and new beginnings. Tour participants attended the morning ceremony and viewed traditional Lao folded paper ornaments, woodcarvings, and artisan booths. Howard Phengsamphone and Dr. Thongvanh Norinth of the Connecticut Lao Association gave a talk to visitors about the Lao community and explained aspects of the ceremony. The tour traveled back to Hartford, where cultural leader and chef Manola Sidara prepared Lao food at her restaurant East-West Grille, and offered performances by young dancers from her group Lao Narthasin and khene player Boualy Rathsombath.


Biographical Note: Boualy Ratsombath (Saturday School Khene teacher) was an elder who learned to play the national instrument of Laos known as khene (a tall bamboo mouth organ made from multiple reed pipes bound together and held upright when played) as a boy from his father. Revered as a master khene player, he came out of retirement to teach students at Lao Saturday School for several years under the Southeast Asian After School Program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and coordinated by CCHAP. This opportunity was a great boost to his spirits, and brought his music into the community’s cultural life. He also shared musical skills with molam singer Sisivath Inthisone as part of Year 10 of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program. He passed away in 2015.


Biographical Note: Manola Sidara is a Lao dance educator and community activist whose life has been devoted to serving her community. Born in 1969 in Vientiane, Laos, Manola joined the National Dance School at the age of five, along with her sister. After her family fled Laos, she continued learning traditional dance with master dancer Sone Norasing in Colorado until moving to Connecticut in 1989. From her grandmother and aunts Manola learned to make pah khuane, the ornaments of bamboo leaves and flowers which are part of every Lao ceremony and celebration in both temple and home. She worked as a wedding consultant, organizing all the arrangements for traditional Lao weddings, and became known as a brilliant cake decorator. Manola helped to produce the exhibit The Ties That Bind: Southeast Asian Wedding Traditions at the Institute for Community Research (ICR) in 1995. In 1999-2000 she served as the Bilingual Program Assistant at Garfield School in Bridgeport, teaching ESOL, computers, and cultural awareness to elementary school children both Lao and Latino. Manola taught traditional dance at the Lao Saturday School in New Britain from its inception. With her high-school age students from the school, Manola formed the Lao Narthasin Dance Troupe, instructing the members in classical Laotian dance, folk dances of different ethnic groups in Laos, and traditional values and manners such as respectful behavior, honoring elders, and service to the family and community. The dance group, which has performed throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island at cultural centers and Lao temples, now includes a third generation of dancers. From 1998 to 2001 Manola was the New Britain Coordinator for the Urban Artists Initiative, a statewide training program run by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Institute for Community Research. In 2001 Manola received an award from the Lao Association of CT at New Year for her work with the Lao Narthasin dancers and was selected as a CT Commission on the Arts Master Teaching Artist. In 2011 Manola coordinated the community oral history project After the Trauma: Holocaust Survivors and Laotian Refugees Confront the Past, displayed at the University of Hartford. Manola is also known as a master chef at East West Grille, her award-winning and beloved Lao-Thai restaurant on New Park Avenue in Hartford from 2000-2019, and the East-West Grille Food Truck. Manola is very active in assisting the Lao Temple in Morris, CT, with cultural programming, social service, and providing food for the monks and their ceremonies. For Manola, her tireless activities in dance, education, ceremonial decorations, and cooking all promote wellness, spirituality, bonding, and healing.


Biographical Note: Lao Narthasin of Connecticut is a group of young Lao-Americans who study and perform traditional folk and classical dances from the southeast Asian country of Laos. Most of these dancers were born in the United States to parents who immigrated here from Laos. They study Lao language and culture in special classes offered by the organization Lao-American Culture of Connecticut in cities such as New Britain, East Hartford, and Bridgeport where many Lao are now living. The Lao Narthasin dance group developed out of the Lao community's desire to preserve its heritage in America. Members of the company, who reside in cities throughout Connecticut, are trained by experienced instructors from notable Lao dance families. The founder of the group, Manola Sidara, is a Lao dance educator and community activist whose life has been devoted to serving her community. Born in 1969 in Vientiane, Laos, Manola joined the National Dance School at the age of five, along with her sister. After her family fled Laos, she continued learning traditional dance with master dancer Sone Norasing in Colorado until moving to Connecticut in 1989. Lao Narthasin now includes a third generation of dancers, and instructors include former students such as dancer Nancy Sayarath. Dance traditions in Laos are either classical, performed at the royal palace, or based in the rural folk cultures of the over sixty ethnic groups in Laos. Lao Narthasin performs both dance genres. Dances include the Hoyn Phon Yhia Welcome Dance where fresh flowers are offered to guests, and the Pow Lao Dance, featuring dancers from different tribal groups. The graceful movements made by the dancers reflect qualities of beauty, respect, and politeness so valued in Laotian culture. Hand gestures also tell stories in the dances, with subtle movements symbolic of spiritual beings such as deities ascending in the heavens. Many of the dances celebrate community festivals - the rice harvest, water festival, New Year, or the Fireworks Festival bringing prosperity and good fortune. Lao Narthasin wears many different authentic costumes appropriate to each special dance. The group often performs at festivals and ceremonies at temples in Connecticut and Rhode Island.


Subject Note: Wat Lao Buddha Ariyamett Aram Temple, Morris CT is a center for the Lao community and their Buddhist worship, situated on several acres of land in rural northwestern Connecticut. Founded in 2002, the temple has beautiful statues of deities and traditional figures as well as several buildings for worship and community gatherings, many of those decorated and constructed in traditional fashion by the resident monk. Khoutavong Yongchaiyuth, traditional Lao ceremonial woodcarver, serves as the resident monk of the Wat Lao Ariyamettaram Lao temple in Morris, rural northwestern Connecticut, having moved there from the temple in Danbury. Khout has been a monk since he was fourteen years old, and in the temple in Laos he learned woodcarving, sculpture, stonemasonry, and painting. He was brought to the US in 1999 by the resident monk in Danbury to build decorative stone and woodwork, and Khout practices the same traditional crafts at the temple in Morris where he serves the spiritual needs of the Lao community. CCHAP has documented activities at the temple over many years, including New Year festivals, the water ceremony, temple dedications, and led a cultural tourism group to visit the temple in 2006. CCHAP connected the temple and community to a 2007 WNPR project on health care in Connecticut ethnic communities. As part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Year 18 (2015-2016), Khout was a mentor to two monks, Xaiyo and Somchay, from the Smithfield RI Lao temple who came to the temple to learn how to build, restore, and decorate Laotian spiritual statues and buildings. Over an intensive few weeks, the young monks from RI gained skills of designing, molding, casting, cutting, and applying that helped them to revitalize the older structures at their temple. They presented their learning at a festival at the temple in 2016.


Subject Note: The basi or sou khuan (ceremony) that features the tying of a string around a person’s wrist is called mat khene. This ritual is a central part of Lao Buddhist events as well as weddings, births, house warmings, or after a death. The practice by a monk or honored elder tying a white cotton thread around a person’s wrist, or tying a cotton thread around the wrists of a bride and groom, symbolizes the connection and well-being of the person’s or family’s spirit.


Subject Note: The Lao Association of Connecticut (LAC) is a community-based non-profit formed in 1980 to provide assistance to Lao-Americans in areas of need such as cultural preservation, education, advocacy, translation, and access to services. Its Board of Directors is comprised of senior members of the Lao community, including educators and artists. LAC was instrumental in developing Lao Saturday School in collaboration with Jefferson School in New Britain, starting in 1994 and running for several years, offering classes in Lao language, history, and arts as well as ESOL and citizenship to adults. LAC sponsors an annual New Year Celebration in April that brings Lao together from all over Connecticut, held for many years in New Britain and elsewhere in temples around Connecticut. LAC has also organized events and projects that serve the community; the group collaborated on the Southeast Asian Problem Gambling Project run by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, as well as other health initiatives. LAC also worked with CCHAP and other Southeast Asian communities to recruit students and parent volunteers for after-school classes, involve students and teachers in community activities; and introduce artists from the other communities to each other.


Additional audio, video, and photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this community and its artists.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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