The day turned out to be very pleasant and full of contrasts. From walking up the steps of the dragon temple, to avoiding the homemade fireworks set off at a local funeral ceremony.
Along our way we came first came across several Chinese graveyards. They were not the usual small stone urnlike headstones with Chinese symbols and characters. Rather they were large half-moon shaped and lavishly decorated monoliths. Our driver told us that the Chinese think it's good luck to have a grave facing water and with it's back to a mountain.
Of course it's only the wealthy Chinese who can afford these kinds of ornate burial sites. I was surprised at how many there were on the hillside.
Hillside Chinese Graveyard
Wat Ban Tham, or the Dragon Temple, is a quiet local temple on the way to the more famous Wat Tham Seu. The stairway is the tail of the dragon. The entranceway it's head. The walk up the steps is a good hike while inside is a cave. A monk sleeps on a raised bamboo bed in one corner to the right. To the left is a small Buddha in front of which children's toys and things have been placed. The central Buddha is set towards the back of the cave. It's quiet and very peaceful in here. A mother and her young son and daughter sit in front of Buddha to pray and gain merit.
Wat Ban Tham Dragon Stairway
Wat Tham Seu is in a compound that actually holds several temples. Wat Tham Seu has an unbelieveably huge golden Buddha sitting at the top of a steep set of steps. This time instead of taking the steps we paid the 10 baht for the cable car ride to the top.
Large Golden Buddha
There are several temples in the compound, all in every day use. And they come from near and far. As we arrived two tour buses full of smiling Thai people had just parked.
Some of the temples have large bells hanging in rows. To gain merit one uses a small stick and gently dings each of the bells in sequence.
Ring the Bells with the wooden stick to gain merit
Later we saw a monk at one of the temple altars sitting praying and receiving gifts from a family group. It looked like they were getting special merit blessings for a family event.
One temple had a spectacular ceiling, hard to capture in a photo, so I lay on the floor and shot upwards.
Decorative Golden Ceiling
I don't remember the name of the next temple we visited. It's not on the general tourist trail. Again it was at the top of a steep hill and had many steps to walk up before we could see the temple. It was a tiny temple. The round room is about 20' around and about 25' tall. In the middle is an imprint of Buddha's foot and to the left was the temple caretaker. He took his job very seriously. As we entered he ceremoniously turned on his microphone and began welcoming us and giving us the speech tour - for all of the 20' * 25' temple! If he'd whispered we would have been able to hear him. However we listened politely and then gave a contribution to the temples rebuilding fund. As we turned away he suddenly called us and gave us some gold leaf pieces to put on the Buddha's footprint and gain merit. I'd always wanted to do the gold leaf pieces on a Buddha and this made my day. Perhaps I even gained a little merit.
As we started back down the steps I heard a loud exploding noise. I stopped and looked around wanting to figure out if we were in danger and needed to duck or whether it was something 'normal'. It turned out to be the end of a funeral celebration in the small chedi at the bottom of the hill. Apparently once the ceremony is over homemade fireworks are released. Made out of bamboo not only did they explode very low in the air but there was no way to know which direction they were heading. It was a very curious thing to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment