The full moon nights of the eleventh and twelfth lunar months...are the days of "Loi Krathong." Loi is "to float" and Krathong is a "leaf cup" usually made of banana leaf as one often sees in the market. . . Loi Krathong is. . . the floating of lights in a leaf cup. During October and November, all the rivers and canals in the lowlands are flooded and the waters in some places overflow their banks. The rainy season is now in a sense over. It is the time of rejoicing for the weather is fair after the rains. The sky becomes bright and clear, but without its dampness. After the strenuous labour of ploughing and planting rice for the last three months at a stretch from dawn till dusk, for the country-folk the heavy work is now over. The peasants have only to wait a month or more for the time of reaping. During this interval they have nothing much economically to do, but to spend a comparative time of leisure with feasts and festivals. . .

. . . Some of the krathongs are not leaf cups at all, in the ordinary sense of the word. Generally, some of them are in the shape of a bird or a boat. They are more of a toy than a krathong, and have only made their appearance in recent years. These are confined mainly to the town people. The country-folk usually have their own home-made krathong for the occasion, and perhaps there may be one or two progressive folk who make them in the shape of a bird or boat for the merriment of their children. Usually in a krathong, apart from a candle and one or more incense sticks, a small coin, say a one or five satang piece, is also put in. . .

In the evening when the full moon begins to rise on October and November, the people, mostly old women and matrons with their children, carry one or two krathongs to the edge of brimful running water. After the candle and incense sticks in the krathong are lighted, they let it go gently on the surface of the placid waters. A few folk will sometimes raise their hands in worship to the floating krathong. They watch the krathong as they float sluggishly along the water for some time until they float far away or out of sight. The children to while away the time play with water fire-works. . . . The floating krathong usually has a short life. As it floats far away from its starting place, the children further down stream will, in most cases, swim out to snatch the krathong. If it is a beautiful one there may be a scramble for it. They will perhaps ignore the common ones, but will not forget to snatch up the small coin... It is an aesthetic pleasure to see many krathongs with their flickering candle lights bobbing gently up and down, borne along the silent and placid flooded waters under the light of a full moon. . .

As can be gathered from the above description, there is nothing in the nature of a ritual and ceremonial act attached to the Loi Krathong. You simply light the candle and incense sticks and let loose all in the water. That is all you have to do. But the small coin that is put in, and the lighting of the candle and incense sticks betray that there must be a cult of some kind. If you ask the people for an explanation, the elder ones will tell you that the Loi Krathong is an act of remission to the Goddess Me Khongkha, the Mother of Water. Khongkha is the same word as the Indian "Gangs" or "Ganges," but in Siamese, it means water in general. They will further explain that in spite of the Mother's bountiful gift of water to man, he sometimes has polluted her water in various ways, therefore it is only proper to ask her pardon. It is an explanation which, if not plausible, is one which the simple believing folk can explain. . .

"While the child is lying in the cradle, besides singing lullabys and swinging it to sleep, there is also a fish or waterskipper for the child to look at, hanging over the cradle toward the head, but not too high, for the child will roll its eyes upward to look at it. When a child rolls its eyes upward like this, they believe that this is a time when the purchasing mother [spirit] comes to molest it. These fish are tied and woven of nipa palm leaves in the form of a fish of fairly large size, and painted green, red, and, yellow. There are many small fish which are supposed to be its young, hanging from it. Even now these are sometimes seen for sale." 1

The Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related Art offers a rich collection of images of Asian art and architecture. It is based upon the core collection created by John and Susan Huntington, professors of Asian Art History at The Ohio State University who engaged in over 35 years of field work in Asia. Nearly 300,000 images are held in the full collection, representing religious imagery and architecture (both on site and in museums) from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China, and Japan. The historical range begins in 2500 B.C.E. and runs through the present day. Roughly 30,000 black and white images along with a limited number of color ones are accessible through an online "Digital Database Collection." Images are available in multiple sizes, with a zoom feature for more detailed views.

A variety of child-related features are presented at the Huntington site. A collection of links to "Online Exhibitions" currently offers valuable material from China, Japan, India, and Tibet. Exhibition themes include pictography and posters from China, modern art and devotional imagery from India, calligraphy and material arts from Japan, and the material icons and imagery of Tibet. While these collections do not address childhood directly, there are occasional iconographic images of children as well as domestic scenes of religious practice.

Other elements of the exhibit collections can be tied to a culture of childhood as well. For example, the exhibit "Literature in Line: Lianhuanhua Picture Stories from China" offers a collection of drawings from picture stories in popular print during the mid-20th century. One useful collection among these includes illustrations from Zhao Hongben and Qian Xiaodai's Monkey Beats the White-boned Demon (1962), based on the classic tale of Journey to the West. This story (available in an English-language translation by Arthur Waley) has been relished by both adults and children in China and continues to be presented globally as both theater and cinema.

The "Digital Database Collection" is another rich resource for the theme of Buddhism and Asian Art. It consists of nearly 30,000 images collected as documentation of Asian sites and architecture by John and Susan Huntington between the years of 1969-1984. Imagery related to the theme of childhood can be located through simple keyword searches. Images of children largely originate from India and include iconographic figures embracing a child as well as visual presentations of "Buddha life scenes." Such images could be usefully tied to textual sources, Buddhist themes, life-stages, allegory and iconography for research projects. Finally, the projects page at the site offers links and teaching resources related to art history, discussion outlines and presentations, as well as a "Visual Encyclopedia of Buddhist Iconography." Though not directly related to childhood as a major theme, these nevertheless offer valuable resources for those interested in exploring the broader context for the imagery of children and childhood.