One of the biggest reasons I wanted to come to Thailand was that I wanted to learn about Buddhism. Thai Buddhism is alive and well, and I've seen my fair share of it in only a few weeks--I've seen many golden wats, monks walking the street, and little signs and references to Buddhism that pepper daily life here.
Though I haven't been very actively trying to study Thai Buddhism, I have gotten to visit two very different Wats (temples).
Doi Suthep is perched atop a mountain near Chiang Mai. It was built because a relic of the Buddha, a hair from his head, was left there. My group piled into a Sung Tao (the big red pickup truck like cars that act as a sort of taxi/bus hybrid) to the Wat.
Like most wats I've seen, this one had a long staircase flanked by serpents, decorated lavishely lat lead to the temple itself. Doi Suthep is a sacred space. It's big and golden and has all sorts of nooks and crannies where Buddhists can leave incense or flowers and there are many donation boxes.
But Dio Suthep, though undisputedly holy, lacks the calm, peaceful, and intentional atmosphere that one would expect of a temple. Because of its fame, people flock to it. SO day by day, this wat is filled to the brim. IT feels a little crowded. On the edges, battered stores sell expensive drinks and trinkets. And it's hard to clean up after 100s of people.
Inside the wat is wild with the crowd. Some people seem to be actual Buddhists, who know what they are doing, kneeling and leaving incense and flowers in certain spots. Others are just as clueless as I am, wandering the circle around the Chedi, getting blessed by monks without knowing why or what they are saying, looking at the murals, not certain of what magnificent stories they depict. Pictures are taken, prayers dais, maybe heartfelt and maybe not.
Doi Suthep, beautiful and important as it is, left me exhausted. The strange mix of tourism and devotion left me confused. I've been strongly reminded of how little I know about Buddhism and the actual practice of the religion.
Leaving Doi Suthep, I was eager to learn more, to try to understand so that next time I would not feel so lost and confused, caught up in swift moving humanity.
While I popped my head in to a few more temples while in Chiang Mai, the second place I visited that packed a punch was Wat Sangoo--a forest wat in Mae Rim, just a little bike ride from my homestay.
It, too, had a staircase that lead to the actual temple. Rather than the more sophisticated gold and silver and colorful tiles that seem to usually make up the mosaic-ed decorations, these stairs were decorated with raised clay. They didn't look artisan or professional, instead, they were simple, depicting scenes from every day modern life. Cars and people going to markets, schools and rice fields. they looked like they could have been made in a school class room of by the members of the community.
I walked up the steps slowly looking intently at the decorations. There was an archway, too--this one decorated in brightly colored glass mosaics. And then I was in the Wat. T His one was much simpler--one big, golden Buddha statue and some simpler statues outside and hen there was the temple itself.
i spent sometime wandering. The ten of us were the only ones there. WE ate a ton of fruit in a little picnic spot, surrounded by trees. Here and there, monks, young and old, swept leaves up into piles and burned them later on.
After lunch, we stepped quietly into the actual temple. It was a real simple building. One room, plain walls. It could have been any building--a school room, a gym, a bingo room in a rec center. But here, it was a sacred space. Red mats set on the floor and a series of beautiful statues and flowers. One of our leaders led us in meditation and then we read stories about the Buddha's past lives. WE were alone in this temples, allowed to share with the monks, the stillness and holiness of this place.
Leaving Wat Sangoo in a peaceful state of mind, I knew I'd learned something important about creating sacredness out of the ordinary.
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