Catch Namaste India Thai Festival in capital on weekend
All things Thai will be on display: food, dance, boxing, and massage as also workshops and lectures between March 28 and March 30;
With the country’s new emphasis on soft power, there will be a range of Thai festivals in 36 countries and 45 cities this year.
India is one of six countries that will hold a flagship festival in New Delhi this weekend. The other cities are Hanoi, Beijing, Riyadh, Paris and Washington.
“It’s been a passion project of ours for 30 years, but has been re-branded this year,” said Suchitra Muangnil, counsellor in the cultural diplomacy division of the ministry of foreign affairs. The festival would have a logo, mascot and a special theme, “Creative Pulse”.
“The idea is that apart from traditional forms, Thailand has many creative and innovative ones as well,” she stated.
She mentioned that the Thai Festival had various names in different cities (Sawasdee DC, in Washington and Tout a fait Thai in Paris). In India, it is called the Namaste Thailand Festival.
The Thai festival was a big success when it was held in India last year, and attracted large groups of adults and children. They expect to get larger crowds this year. It had been held in New Delhi and Calcutta earlier this year in February and would be held with more events this weekend.
The events include Thai food tastings and cooking lessons, Thai massage, Muay Thai boxing performances, classical dance like the Khon and jazz music from the renowned Thai jazz-maestro Koh Saxman. There would also be workshops on Thai crafts like umbrella making, fan painting and sand pagoda creating. A special event would be an art lecture by noted professor Pairoj Pittayamatee, where in keeping with the theme of the festival, his subject would be “Thai Ancient Colours in a Modern Making”. He would also draw comparisons between the colours of Holi and Songkran.
“There would also be a display of many “dehydrated, easy to eat food, what we call “future food” and which we are introducing to new markets,” said the MFA bureaucrat.
After the tenure of dynamic Thai ambassador Ms Pattarat Hongtong, this festival would be the first major event of the new Thai ambassador to India, Ms Chavanart Thangsumphant.
And it should indeed be a great beginning, to build people-to-people bonds between Thailand and India. With Indian tourists pouring into Thailand, this will be a great introduction to the best of Thai art, craft, cuisine and culture.