Saturday, January 12, 2008

Chiang Mai, the beginning

When people ask me, "Where in Thailand did you like best?" - my answer is Chiang Mai. Again, our first day was spent taking care of tours and things of that nature. Our afternoon - we went out to do some more temple viewing recommended by our guest house owner.

The first temple we visited was called Chiang Mun that was built in 1296-1297 AD. The temple held several important artifacts for Thailand. One of these was a white quart Buddha image and then also a stone cut Buddha. Behind the temple was a 700 year old stupa that was surrounded by elephant carvings. The temples were sparkling gold as usual.




The second temple we went to was called Wat Chediluang Varaviharn. This was supposed to be one of the best 3 temples to see in Chiang Mai, but it was under construction. However, in the back it held yet another old Khmer -like structure that is 60 meters high. It used to be 90 meters - which you can tell by looking at the top of it, but was destroyed in an earthquake nearly 500 years ago.
These Buddhas below - represent every day of the week. From left to right shows Sunday through Saturday. If you know which day you were born on - you should pray to that particular Buddha. They also have Morning and Night Buddhas - so if you don't know what day you were born on but you know what time of day you were born on - you can pray to that Buddha instead.
This temple was supposed to be the 2nd of 3 temples we intended on seeing this day. The plans changed as we were leaving the temple grounds. There was a program here called "Monk Chat". There was a sign that said, "we don't mind if you come to look at our temple, but we are sad if you just leave and don't speak to us." We thought it would be super cool to talk to monks so we decided to join in monk chat. Ruth and I went together to talk to one monk, Andres went by himself and then Kyla and Emily went to speak to another monk together. Now, when people ask me, what are the best things you've done in Thailand? I will always respond this monk chat at this temple. We spoke for two hours to our monks. It was so great to speak to someone. He was only a year younger than I - 23 years old. He became a monk when he was 14. At the moment, he is attending Buddhist University - which is who puts on this monk chat program. In the future he would like to become a teacher. He talked about all sorts of things from Buddhist beliefs, his university to his favorite sports. He really made me think a lot about the purpose of life and just about how I live my life. It's just so intriguing to me that I can speak to someone my own age and how different we are. How different our thought process is, how different our past 10 years have been...how we can think so differently yet be at the same age. He seemed so in-tune with life, with who he is, so sure of these things - that it was attractive to me. A lot of times, I feel so lost in life. I think I want one thing but then am not sure. Especially since living in Japan, I question life all the time. It was very comforting to have someone that seemed so confident in life to talk to.

After we literally closed down monk chat, we went for dinner and a few drinks. Then, we played under the lit up lanterns. I haven't mentioned it yet - but I think it's very Thai to speak about. The king. Everyone and I mean every Thai person loves their king. You see pictures of him everywhere you go. Everyone wears yellow shirts because it is the king's favorite color. You know those "livestrong" bracelets that were so popular like 3 years ago? Well, they all wear them, too, except they don't say "livestrong" but they say "Long live the king". I doubt there's another country in this world that loves their king as much as Thai people love their king. So, here's a photo of us, with one of the millions huge posters of the king hung around Thailand.


Click here for pictures of this day and for a sneak preview of what future postings will be

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's great to see how much you are packing into such a short time. These days you'll remember forever. They'll stand out in the rest of the day to day routine. And we're lucky to live vicariously through your blog and photos. The digital images are GREAT. You do a great job with the photographs. A Chris/Rochester