"It's mostly water fighting," admitted Kapi'olani Community College student Phatthaya Xaysanith, 18, who was there with her mother, Kongsy, and her older brother, Thanva, 24.

Songkram is the largest event for the Laotian community, drawing hundreds to the daylong festival. The 2000 Census counted 2,437 Laotians in Hawai'i, and many in attendance yesterday said the culture is kept alive through regular gatherings of their Buddhist temple, which meets at Jarrett Middle School.

For this, a religious as well as cultural celebration, Laotian Buddhist monks in bright orange robes sat serenely to one side in a covered tent strewn with rugs. Nearby, a ribbon-covered float wound its way through the field carrying the Songkram royal court — pretty queen Michelle Phrakonekham, 13, a Wai'anae Intermediate eighth-grader, and her princesses, including stately Mary Rajsombath and Christine Singsongkham, both of whom attend Dole Middle School.

Who would have guessed that just an hour earlier, these girls in their metallic-threaded finery were alternately giggling at and then scolding 14-year-old Lane Phongphila, armed and ready with a fully charged Super Soaker on his back, tapping the business end in his hand like a Keystone cop with a baton?

Drawing near a triangular mound of sand that would symbolize Buddha, their dharma (truth) and sangha (community), Lane took a moment from teasing the girls to talk about his cultural and religious heritage.

Lane explained that three days before, he and his family got the house ready for Songkram, Laotian New Year. He and his father gathered all the Buddhas from the house, including their Buddha pendants, lined them up and then sprinkled them with perfume-scented holy water.

"My family is very religious," the Dole Intermediate eighth-grader explained solemnly. "On certain days, we can't fight or argue with each other."

But on this day, dousing each other is fair game, said Joanne Sengphrachanh. The night would go on to include more spicy Laotian food and dancing.

"Water cleanses the bad and brings the good," she said.

The royal truck paraded down a dirt road through the Kunia farm, then came to a stop in front of the monks. Following behind were the rest of the festival-goers, swaying to the Laotian music.

The boys took turns filling buckets and flinging them at the crowd. Wet and happy. It was a good day to be Laotian.