Chiang Mai Yee Peng Festival
The Yee Peng Festival in Chiang Mai is held during Loy Krathong. This is one of the largest gatherings for a release of lanterns into the sky in Thailand. A unique moment and beautiful pictures to do !
The place to go for this huge lanterns (Khom Loy) release in the sky is the Dhutanka Lanna Meditation Center (Tel : 053 353 174 ) behind Mae Jo University (GPS: 18.898329,99.013313) on the road 1001 about twenty kilometers outside of Chiang Mai. Although lanterns are sent in the sky at night, it is interesting to come much earlier, to see the preparations and to find an interesting place because there will be people, a lot of people ! No need to bring something to eat, there is a plenty of food vendors. Lanterns are released in the sky during a ceremony led by Buddhist monks. At the end, a signal is given and everyone release his lanterns at the same time. The spectacle of the sky filled with thousands of lights is just amazing ! In short, the Mae Jo Lantern Release is really an experience to live !
This year, the event will be held on November 16, 2013 from 1 pm to 8.30 pm. The 2 hours ceremony during which the lanterns will be released into the sky starts at 6.30 pm. (detailled program available here).
Here’s a little video of what it looked like last year.
