YASOTHON

Yasothon is famous for its boisterous Rocket Festival every May, when giant home-made missiles are launched into the air in a symbolic rain- making gesture.

In the town at Wat Mahathat, Phra That Yasothon is a much-visited Lao-style chedi, said to be over 1,200 years old. It enshrines holy relics of Phra Ananda, one of Lord Buddha's chief disciples. That Kong Khao Noi is an ancient Khmer chedi with a much revered brick and stucco Buddha that is ritually bathed every April. The handicraft village of Ban Si Than is famed for the triangular pillows used in most Thai households.