My Time in Tokyo

Buddhist Wats

Thailand is covered in Buddhist temples. Like Japan, no matter where you are in Chiang Mai- in a business district, neighborhood, or strolling around the countryside, at every turn you can find a temple. Chiang Mai has about 300 temples scattered throught the city and outskirts. In Thai temples are called wat. So while I was in Chiang Mai I visited a great number of different wats ranging from small, quiet neighborhood wats to the large, famous ones that attract thousands of visitors every day.

We wandered through a couple small wats we saw along our way to other places. The first was Wat Lamchang, in honor of tethered elephants (for some reason). Wats in Thailand are always bright and colorful and often glittery due to the pieces of glass that often cover the walls in a mosaic fashion.

Called nagau, these snake statues are placed at the front of the main temple building for protection

Murals and artwork inside the main building

Ruins of the old stupa (relic place) next to the bright new building

At the second wat we entered, Tricia taught me how Buddhists pray. After entering the main building of a temple you will see an altar with at least one image of Buddha on it along with other decorations like flowers and candles at the far end of the room. In front of the altar there is a carpet on which people kneel to pray. After kneeling Buddhists bow three times (once for Buddha, once for Dharma, and once for the people), and then pray.

The Seven Positions of Buddha, each one is associated with a day of the week and represents an event in the Buddha's life believed to have happened on the corresponding day

At Wat Chiang Men

Murals on the inside of this Wat tell the story of Buddha's life

After those lovely excursions through neighborhood wats, we made our way outside of the city to see the wat on Doi Suthep. Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, a huge and famous temple is known for its placement on top of the Doi Suthep mountain, 1,676 meters tall. There is a huge staircase you must ascend in order to reach the temple grounds on top of the mountain peak. Upon reaching the top and purchasing a ticket to enter, we explored the temple. All of the architecture and decorations were bright gold and it was quite gaudy in my opinion. The temple was also packed full of hundreds of tourists.

People lining up to get a white string bracelet

Mom. Hahaha

The view of Chiang Mai from the top of Doi Suthep

The small temples were the best in my opinion. Since they are so quiet and calm I felt that they actually retained the spiritual purpose they are meant for. In contrast, visiting the very famous temples crowded with people made it seem like an empty tourist spot completely lacking any reverence that it was originally intended to provoke.

We also visited Wat Umong, which is famous for its network of low lit tunnels with little alcoves set up for people to pray at. We removed our shoes and joined the throngs of people venturing into the tunnel system. At the end of one tunnel in front of an alcove I was surprised to see an orange clad monk in a half prone position working at something. It was impressive to see that people actual use the tunnels for more than just tourism.