as promised…finally

hello everyone. sorry there has been such a delay between this post and the day of my midterm. i actually did have the intention to write something that day, but the photos were not loading and everything i was writing sounded really fake. i was trying to re-create my feelings from the wat stay from 4 days before and decided to just not even bother…to hear my opinions upon the event, ask me to read you excerpts from my journal, it’s from the actual day.

o yes, and today i did play the beatles on my ipod for one of my monk friends. it started with me asking “have you ever seen ‘across the universe?’” i played both versions of the title song for him. his response? “it is very relaxing to listen too”

add “and outright amazing” and i would completely agree with him.

and now, i will update you on my life via pictures…..

one of the temples we visted two weekends ago. i have the name written down somewhere…it was long….

i’m drawing a blank on the name of this temple, but this i believe is the main vihara, or meeting room, of wat whatever.

hey fellow environmentalists, here’s an idea to ensure trees don’t get cut down: make them a monk. seriously, these trees have been “monked,” in that they have had a robe placed on them and therefore cannot be harmed in any way. these trees are all over thailand, especially the old trees they don’t want to have cut down, i’ll have better pictures before i leave. i just thought this one was interesting because it has these sticks that ppl pay some baht to sign and then they are used to support the tree and symbolically supporting buddhism.

 sorry for the lopsidedness…..but the message is still clear

 the wheel of karma as depicted by a tibeten artist. karma is one of the most confusing ideas i have confronted here. in the third year class we had a discussion that eventually accidently meandered down the path of buddhism/christianity, but for a while it was all these different monks expressing personal depictions of karma and whether it was indefinite or definite….at some points it just went over my head or sounded like we were just talking in circles (ironically, the way it’s illustrated here).

this was in a meditation room at the forest temple we visited on friday.

feeding the fish at the forest temple. and these are not your cute rainbow fish. these are cat fish. i would personally be scarred for life were i ever to be submerged in that body of water….

…or somehow lose a bet and have to feed the fish this way. i’m adventurous, but i’ll leave these activities to those a bit more reckless. nonetheless, it was pretty funny.

this is the chedi at the first temple we visited in Lampoon two Saturdays ago, the name of which i have but cannot currently find. i do know it’s the home temple of one of my monk friends at Wat Suandok. the chedi is the most important spot at any temple because it houses the relic that makes the wat so holy. some places, like wat suetep up on the mountain, have relics, or body parts, of the last buddha that everyone knows, but some places, like wat suandok, have relics of important monks (i forget what this one had). this one is famous for the walking buddha on top of it, which you can’t see in this shot, but it’s up there, i swear.

 they would…but at least they said please…..

construction sites would look a lot prettier if we all started using bamboo as latters.

the footprint of buddha, or at least the most i could get at that angle.

thankfully, we did not have to climb these steps, although a few braved the treck down and up, making doi sutep look like a stroll in the park!

guarding the temple steps with ferocious pride

 

THE CAVES! this was hands down my favorite part of the day. oh how many times did i wish i actually knew something about photography outside of my trusty digital camera.

 the billy goat inside me had a lot of fun scampering around the cool rocks after the heat of the day and ascending down into other parts of the caves with only a birthday candle to light our way.

a reminder we are still in thailand…these are spirit houses, in case i have not mentioned that yet. i haven’t i just realized. well, they are EVERYWHERE in thailand.

waiting in a line to give alms to the monks at 6 in the morning. we walked from the forest temple with them down the back road to this street and then seperated so they could make their rounds and we could buy food for them/ after it is prepared and they eat some, we get the leftovers.

sunrises, especially when occuring on a hilltop at a forest temple in thailand, make me smile.

a bunch of the village girls led me down to “feed the fish” and i found out there is only one kind of fish to feed in thailand.

the room (i don’t know if it’s the vihara) where we had our meditation lessons.

 a drawing one of the third year monks, curse, made of me. i guess if i were asian and/or a cartoon, it’s actually a fairly good depiction….

class time on v-day.

i love asian translated artifacts.

 my first students i ever had- jack (on the left) and lu (on the right). jack is the one who gave me my thai name, jhan (not an “m” for the record…hey, i confuse that in english, much less thai!)

okay, more to follow, but there you have an update of what’s being going on up until today!

till next time,

sarah

~ by sarah davis on February 18, 2008.