At her Thai Buddhist temple in Silver Spring, Maytinee Pramawat went to a closet stuffed with gilded headdresses and efficiency provides and located what she wanted: skinny ornamental pink cones topped with pompoms. As her college students filed into apply, they turned into loosefitting pink pants, capped their fingers with the cones, then went by a dance they plan to carry out on the temple’s greatest pageant because the pandemic started.
Maryland
At a Maryland temple, multiple ethnic strands are bound by Thailand
Throughout the USA, kids go to Thai temples to study hold their households’ language and traditions alive
Underneath her course, they pinched pointer and thumb collectively, fanning out the remainder of their fingers — forming the “jeeb” hand gesture, a key component of conventional Thai dance — then gracefully prolonged their arms and launched the pinch in a fluid movement accentuated by the pompoms.
These girls, like a rising variety of Individuals, come from an array of ethnic backgrounds: African American, Native American, Vietnamese and Lao.
However the thread that binds them is Thai. Every has at the very least one Thai mother or father and spent most weekends of their childhoods at Wat Thai Washington, D.C. — the area’s largest Thai temple, in Silver Spring — studying the language, sharing spicy meals and bonding by conventional music and dance.
Pramawat, whose mom is African American and whose father is Thai, was 3 when her father — additionally a conventional Thai dancer and a Muay Thai fighter — started taking her to the temple to study the language and efficiency arts.
“Thai dancing … was a way of identification, satisfaction, enjoyable, hanging out with your folks,” mentioned Pramawat, 44, a Silver Spring resident who works in human assets. “As I bought older, it meant giving again and actually supporting the neighborhood.”
After faculty, she assisted her dance trainer, and later, she grew to become the temple’s dance trainer. For the upcoming efficiency, she selected for her college students a dance from Isaan, the northeastern area of Thailand.
They’ve bought just a few weeks to nail the routine. Then on April 16, they’ll carry out on the temple’s Thai new yr pageant, a celebration open to all, with meals, dance and music to rejoice Songkran, the most important Thai vacation of the yr.
In Thailand, Songkran, also referred to as the water pageant, is well known nationwide as a enjoyable week-long water combat. The vacation falls in April, the most well liked month of the yr, simply earlier than the arrival of the monsoon rains. The dance Pramawat chosen for her college students is supposed to invoke the rains.
“Being blessed by rain — hopefully not through the present — is at all times an indication of fine luck,” mentioned Pramawat, who may even carry out for Songkran with one other dance group. “This dance has upbeat, vigorous music. So I believed, what a method to rock it out by utilizing this dance.”
Throughout the USA, temples function Thai American neighborhood facilities, the place adults born in Thailand carry their kids — both born in America or just Americanized — to maintain their language and traditions alive.
Wat Thai D.C. started in 1974 when two monks moved right into a home on Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring, and since 1986 has been in its present location, 13440 Layhill Highway, mentioned Phramaha Ruangrit Thaithae, 52, one in every of 9 monks residing on the temple. It’s the oldest and largest Thai temple within the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area, with 2,500 congregants, Thaithae mentioned. There are roughly 12,000 Thais within the area, in keeping with the 2015 census numbers.
For Phanna Iamlek, Wat Thai D.C. gave her a primary style of formal schooling. Her dad and mom, who had been farmers in Thailand, left her with household after they immigrated to work at a relative’s Thai restaurant in Wheaton. When she was introduced to affix them at age 5, the temple helped hold her rooted.
“It stored me linked at a time after I moved to a complete new nation that spoke a completely completely different language,” mentioned Iamlek, now 28, a bodily therapist working with MedStar and residing in Silver Spring.
Antiena Nguyen — born to a Vietnamese father and Thai mom — has been going to the temple since she was 4.
“It began off with my mother eager to discover a means for me to protect my Thai tradition,” mentioned Nguyen, a 27-year-old Rockville resident who designs customized closets. “As I grew older … you get to that rebellious age. You don’t wish to do it anymore. However my mother was in that technology of fogeys that was like, ‘No, you’re going to go to the temple, and also you’re going to study this.’”
In highschool, Nguyen got here to worth her temple schooling, and after faculty, she returned to assist train.
The got here covid. In March 2020, simply earlier than Songkran, “the temple shut down for the sake of the well-being of the monks residing there: no guests had been allowed, and all the standard actions ceased,” mentioned Thaithae, who has lived on the temple since 1998.
For some congregants, the closure created a sudden void.
“I had this routine of going to the temple each weekend, and I type of really feel like how everybody else felt — considerably disconnected,” Pramawat mentioned. “A spot that was so vigorous and open no was fully shut down.”
A misplaced technology at Wat Thai
The temple has step by step reopened and now hosts Sunday sermons in addition to modest celebrations for Buddhist holy days, Thaithae mentioned. Some folks have returned for the day by day preparation of meals for the monks, however attendance has but to achieve pre-covid ranges.
And with language and tradition lessons but to renew, some fear {that a} technology of youngsters have zero ties to the temple.
Nguyen as soon as felt it was time “to go off, be an grownup” and go the baton to the age group beneath her. However the pandemic modified all the things.
“There’s an enormous hole of children that ought to have been performing, honing their craft, actually being the brand new heads and leaders of the efficiency group within the temple,” she mentioned, involved that those that left for faculty received’t come again. “It’s virtually like a misplaced technology of children … So now the temple is counting on us older generations to come back and carry out.”
Ganokrut Mookkung, a 21-year-old at College of Maryland who began going to the temple when she was about 3, calls herself the “child” of her dancing group and sees herself as a job mannequin for the youthful technology: “How can I at the very least attempt to affect them, hold some a part of their tradition thriving and going into the long run?”
Mookkung, who’s of Thai, Lao and Native American descent, spent the pandemic caught in her bed room, watching YouTube for Thai information that she used to select up on the temple.
“I miss being round aunties yelling within the kitchen. I miss my mates and I speaking about what’s occurring in Thailand,” she mentioned, almost bursting with pleasure in regards to the return of the pageant. “After I discovered that Songkran was occurring, I used to be like sure! Our time to attach with our neighborhood, join with ourselves.”
Usually Pramawat would train kids to bop for Songkran, however with no lessons, she is counting on these older college students with years of expertise. She sees the pageant as a “popping out social gathering” to ask folks again to the temple, which, Thaithae mentioned, plans to relaunch summer season college for teenagers in June.
Wat Thai D.C.’s Songkran pageant used to attract about 3,000 attendees, Thaithae mentioned. After a three-year pause, he and the dancers hope for a giant social gathering however have modest expectations.
“Songkran was this large factor. It was crowded, parking was a multitude, folks would come from everywhere in the D.C. space,” Iamlek mentioned. “It was chaotic, however in one of the best ways: In all places you appeared, it was monks strolling round speaking to folks … folks of all completely different ages and cultures coming and seeing all of it — it’s like a chunk of Thailand, and also you’re not in Thailand.”
For those who go, listed below are particulars: The Songkran pageant of Wat Thai Washington, D.C. will probably be Sunday, April 16, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., at 13440 Layhill Highway, Silver Spring, Md.
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Maryland
Partial victory in effort to preserve historic Black cemetery in Maryland
![Partial victory in effort to preserve historic Black cemetery in Maryland Partial victory in effort to preserve historic Black cemetery in Maryland](https://media.nbcwashington.com/2024/09/34199981402-1080pnbcstations.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=1200%2C675)
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Maryland issues a new suicide prevention action plan for schools, families – WTOP News
![Maryland issues a new suicide prevention action plan for schools, families – WTOP News Maryland issues a new suicide prevention action plan for schools, families – WTOP News](https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/SAD_GIRL.GettyImages-1033774340-e1705449585875.jpg)
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in Maryland. That’s according to a new suicide prevention action plan produced through the state’s Department of Health.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in Maryland. That’s according to a new suicide prevention action plan produced through the state’s Department of Health.
Scott Poland, the director of the Office of Suicide and Violence Prevention at Nova Southeastern University College of Psychology, talked to WTOP about the action plan he authored with his wife, Donna, who is a career educator.
The “Maryland Action Plan to Prevent Suicide in K-12 Schools” serves as a reference guide to school administrators and the community, and was developed in cooperation with the state health department’s Office of Suicide Prevention.
Poland said one thing that surprises people is that children as young as 8 years old may consider taking their own lives.
“I hear from school personnel all around the country (asking if they) have to take it seriously (if a fourth or fifth grader is talking about suicide). And the answer is absolutely yes,” Poland said.
Among the data points in the action plan is a survey of students in the “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey of 2021/2022.” According to that survey, 21% of high school students “seriously considered suicide” in the past year, and 27% of middle schoolers considered suicide at some point in their lives.
Poland said it’s important to talk about suicide with young people, and that the idea that talking about it might encourage a young person to consider suicide is a “myth.”
“When we actually bring it up, it gives someone a chance to unburden themselves, to realize that they’re not alone, that there are alternatives and that there is help available,” Poland said.
But he said young people are most susceptible to imitating suicidal behavior: “It is important that we not glorify the suicide victim.”
Instead, Poland said, the emphasis after a suicide should be on healing those affected and helping them find appropriate ways to deal with their emotions and mental health.
The plan released this week includes providing intervention action plans for a young person who may be considering suicide.
“Part of that, of course, is removing lethal means and developing a written safety plan with them,” he said.
Poland said that can include helping people understand “the importance of calling 988, doing things that can calm themselves down,” and reaching out to the nearest trusted adult.
People can reach the national resource for crisis response services and suicide prevention by dialing 988.
Poland said social media is “wreaking havoc” on children’s emotional well-being, often making them feel “not smart enough, not rich enough, not good enough.” Poland said he’s currently working with the state of South Dakota on developing tools to help “young people be a little more mindful and make better decisions about their screen time.”
Poland said parents can help — when it comes to the hours and hours that many people spend online — by modeling healthy amounts of screen time themselves. And he said adults need to think about how they introduce technology to their kids.
“We’re in too (much of) a hurry to give kids smartphones and 24-hour internet access,” Poland said.
“I really have to compliment Maryland,” Poland said, on coming up with the new plan.
Poland said Maryland does not have an especially high rate of suicide, but “I think we all recognize that losing one young person to suicide is one too many.”
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Getting to know Michigan State football’s Week 2 opponent: Maryland
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Game two is coming up for Michigan State football as the Spartans hit the road for an early season Big Ten matchup against Maryland. The Terps have had MSU’s number in recent years, but the Spartans’ new-look team is ready to change that narrative this weekend.
Jonathan Smith and his staff have a lot to work on this week after a lackluster 16-10 win over Florida Atlantic, but we’ve become more than used to slow starts for MSU in their first game so it’s not time to panic just yet.
While the team wraps up their preparations for Maryland, let’s take a quick look at the Terps and see what we can learn about them before the big game on Saturday.
Maryland is off and running in their 2024 campaign and had an absolutely dominant week one performance. The Terps took on UConn at home and came away with an impressive 50-7 win. Sure UConn is an awful football program, but we saw how poorly Michigan State just did against a similar opponent.
Not only was the final score lopsided, but ever major statistical category was as well. Maryland doubled UConn in first downs and rushing yards, threw for nearly 400 passing yards and even won the turnover battle 3-0. The Terps also only had five penalties for 45 yards which is significantly better than MSU’s 12 for 140 yards against FAU.
Sure all of this took place against UConn, but it appears that Maryland is in a very good spot heading into this big week two matchup.
One thing that I thought would be a positive for Michigan State in this game is that Maryland is breaking in a new quarterback as well. The Terps’ quarterback, Billy Edwards Jr., went off against UConn and completed 20-of-27 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns. He also is a capable runner and added 39 yards on the ground, so Michigan State will have its hands full on Saturday slowing him down.
The Terps don’t have one standout running back in the backfield, so that does benefit MSU. They do however have two solid backs in Roman Hemby and Nolan Ray who both ran for over 60 yards and one score each.
The one player however that Michigan State needs to pay the most attention to is wide receiver Tai Felton. He had one of the best Week 1 performances in the country as he recorded seven receptions for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Thankfully MSU’s defense and secondary looked much improved against FAU, so hopefully that carries over into this weekend’s matchup.
The opportunity in front of MSU on Saturday is massive. The Spartans are big underdogs in this matchup which they probably deserve, but a win would do wonders not just for the overall perception of the team but for their confidence moving forward.
I’ve got a strange feeling that we’re going to be very happy around 7 p.m. ET Saturday night.
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