Word: kites
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...kite," an angry housewife snarls at her husband-but imagine her surprise if he actually went and did. There was Ben Franklin, of course, with his handkerchief, his key and his lightning bolt, and if Orville and Wilbur Wright had not been kiting enthusiasts, a Russian might have invented the airplane after all. But the adult U.S. male who shows up at the park with kite and twine is certain to be suspect unless he has a passel of kids in tow. And there is something definably foreign about the doughty Somerset Maugham hero who preferred to rot in jail...
Perhaps it is just that Americans have no sense of the sublime. "My kite rises to celestial regions," wrote a 9th century monk. "My soul enters the abode of bliss." On Formosa, the ninth day of the ninth moon is the Day of Ascending Heights, a holiday in honor of kites. In Japan, kite flying is so popular that it was once legislated out of existence, so that people could keep their minds on their work. And nowhere is kiting pursued with more passion than in Thailand, where legend has it that a young lover found his lady fair...
...telephone company executive, Poon, 55, is the kite-fighting champion of Thailand-and in Thailand, kite fighting is a big-league sport. It has its teams (sponsored by private companies, like U.S. bowling teams), its league, its rules (72 of them), its umpires and its World Series, the All-Thailand championships, held each spring in Bangkok's Phramane Grounds. In India, where kite fights are also common, strings are coated with ground glass; in South America, frames are studded with razor blades...
...Thais are too sophisticated for such crude devices. Their fighting kites, which cost up to $18, are made of rice paper delicately stretched on a fragile bamboo frame, and come in two sexes: the star-shaped chula, or male kite, and the diamond-shaped pakpao, or female. Each has its special weapon. The chula sports five bamboo talons called champas (literally: fruit pickers), and the pakpao carries a long noose called a nhiang. The male kite tries to capture the female's control string in its talons and drag it to earth; the female tries to encircle the male...
...less than half as big as the bulky (85 in. sq.) chula, which takes as many as 50 men to control. But the pakpaos line up along the north side of Phramane Grounds, and the steady southwest wind gives a courtly advantage to the weaker sex. The female kites bank on speed and guile: sometimes two pakpaos will pounce on a single chula, like nimble fighter planes attacking a lumbering bomber. Even if an opponent's kite is captured, the fight is only half over: it must be grounded on the attacker's side of the field...