A few years ago I was traveling in Uttaradit province in Thailand and was invited to attend the Attamee Puja festival at a temple there. It's basically a very flashy religious play about the cremation of the Buddha that happens about a week after Visakha Puja.

The people in my group told me that this temple is the only one in Thailand to celebrate Attamee Puja, but they didn't know why. They were also hazy about who the characters in the play were. This was a group of TAT officers.

Does anybody know anything about this ceremony? I've been curious about it ever since. It was a very cool event and you should totally go if you are ever in Uttaradit in June.

According to this web site it was created by the local abbot, maybe he thought it a fun thing to do http://thailandguidetravel.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/the-cremation-of-lord-buddhas-effigy.html