Tokens of Buddhist appreciation
I’ve always enjoyed reading and practicing some fundamentals of Buddhism, for the past couple of years or so.
I don’t claim to even remotely be a Buddhist, however if I had to pick something that even vaguely resembled a religion that I had to follow, I am pretty sure I would go with it. The attraction? Mostly the strong core principles that it relies on.
Don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t be an asshole. (I may have tweaked this last one slightly, but works just as efficiently). Despite my attraction to Buddhism, I had never been in a country where its presence was so strong as it is here in Thailand: in Chiang Mai alone, there exists about 300 different temples, which is a lot for such a small city. What’s interesting about this is not the number itself, though, but how the overall feeling of devotion echoes throughout the city as you’re simply minding your everyday business.
In every street corner, outside most houses and even shopping malls, you’ll find small little temples, very bright and colourful decorated with statues of the Buddha, often with what seem to be eternally burning candles inside. Most of them are quite beautiful, and also very old. What staggers me is the sheer respect people have for these: they’re never damaged.
In every other country, it would be only a matter of time until these were either stolen, defaced, ruined, sprayed over, but not in Thailand. They’re sitting there gracefully becoming old, as reminders of the slow passing of time and devotion to something.
They’re even on the entrance of Starbucks and Shopping Malls.
This whole sense of religious and peace makes Chiang Mai an incredibly safe city to walk around. Either during the day or at night, I have never felt in danger or gotten any shady looks from anyone. People wave and nod at you as you’re passing by them, if you pay them attention, which is wonderful to create a sense that you matter, that you’re there, present.
prguitarman
origamiaround
romaincrisis