Transplanting rice seedlings in farming season

        The transplanting of rice or Chae-Ka-Ar-Pew is a cerebration that has pasted from generation to generation. The Akha people will cerebrate around May every year before they start transplanting rice seedlings. Chae is a paddy, Ka is planting and Arpew is the new rice plant cerebration.
                They have a story about the cerebration, which has been past down through generations. In the past Akha people did not have rice seeds and therefore could not plant rice nor eat it.  Akha people were very smart as they used a sparrow to steal the rice seeds from the god “Ar-Pew-Hmee-Yae” for planting.

The rice seed name is “Gow-Ma” When the sparrow gets the order from the Akha people it goes to heaven to steal the rice seed. The sparrow can not steal rice seed but the Akha people do not give up. They tell other birds to go and steal rice seed but they can not steal. Finally, Akha people tell a dove to steal the rice seed from the god. This time a dove is able to steal the rice and it comes to tell Akha people. They give a name to dove it is Ha-Hwe and it means “Steal bird”. The Akha people would like to get the seed from the dove but the dove will not give the seed to the Akha people and it flies away.

The dove flies away from the Akha people and meets with two other doves on the bamboo tree. The three doves on the bamboo tree confuses the Akha people and they discuss what to do. They choose the middle crossbow, the middle arrow and the middle dove to shot. They shot the dove and it falls into the river. The yellow fish eats the dove and the Akha people then cast a net into the water to catch the fish, when they do they open the fish.      
They see the bird in the fish’s stomach and chop the bird’s stomach to get the rice seeds out. The Akha people go to tell the religious leader “Jow-Mah” to clean the seeds in the holy well before planting in the fields. This is the reason why they celebrate “Chae-Da-Ar-Paew”. They will cerebrate for 2 days. On the first day the men will go to clean the holy well which is a religious place. The holy well is a place that Akha people use to run the religious cerebration. The water from the holy well they call “E-Ju-E-Sor” it means pure water. This day every household will have the ritual as offering food to the spiritual ancestors. In the evening, the religious leader announces to the villagers that they are not allowed to work tomorrow. The Akha people can not go to work in any place.  

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