A chofah(ช่อฟ้า) literally meaning sky tassel in Thai is the bird like feature that you you find on the end of the roof gable of the Bot or Ubosoth at a Thai Temple. The chofah may be in several different forms although commonly it is like the neck and head of a Garuda or Hong. Although there are some with the head of an elephant. Often there is a small bell attached at the end that tinkles in the wind. Chofah’s are usually coloured gold.
Although you will see several chofah’s on a bot/ubosoth and indeed other temple buildings there is always one important one, usually placed over the East facing entrance door to the sanctuary. This important chofah is put in place after the bot is structurally complete, but has not had the Luk Nimit stones placed around it. In fact the placing of these stones is the next ceremony to take place and thus complete the sacred building ready for the ordination of monks.
I recently attended a chofah ceremony at Wat Dan Singkhon, Prachuap Khiri Khan and this is what I observed.
Chofah Ceremony.
I joined the ceremony towards the end of the religious service which was being held in a large sala in the Wat grounds. There were thirteen monks in attendance which included the Abbott from Wat Khlong Wan(Chief Buddhist monk in the area). After chanting and merit making the Abbot made his way over to the area where the chofah was already prepared. It was adorned in brightly coloured ribbons and covered in gold leaf. Attached to the chopah were hooks and a pulley system which led to the top of the ubosoth some 50′ up.
After the Abbott blessed the chofah and the crowd(by splashing holy water over them) there was much excitement as the crowd were invited to winch the object up the pulley system to the top of the Bot where four brave young men stood on a wooden platform to receive the chofah and eventually fix it in place. Prior to the winching operation white string from huge reels was passed around which people held with the end eventually being attached to the chofah.
It was a very windy day but slowly the new chofah rose from the ground and made its way to the top of the temple and the waiting attendant. These young men moved the chofah onto the scaffold and proceeded to unwrap it. Everyone now moved into the area surrounding the bot and tried to catch a piece of coloured ribbon as the helpers threw them down from the top of the building. At times it was like a rugby scrum with the normally restrained Thais almost fighting each other to get a small piece of the ribbon.
When the last of the ribbon had been thrown everyone dispersed and either headed into the temple grounds or their way home.
