My first foreign trip with the Foundation was a three week tour of Asia. Week one was in Ayutthaya, about one hour's drive from Bangkok, Thailand, where I joined a group from PATH visiting a vaccine manufacturer. Their head of regulatory affairs, another Janet, invited me to join her on a tour of the old city with an English speaking guide, Mr. Pok and driver, Mr. Vinai, since we were both staying over the weekend after our meetings finished.
We started at King Rama V's summer palace, Bang Pa-In Palace, an Eastern interpretation of Versailles complete with a Chinese pagoda and observatory tower. Grey carp, catfish and turtles vied over the bread that we threw in the lake, in the center of which was a golden pavilion containing a status of the king. There was a Brahmin ceremony going on outside to dedicate a new spirit house complete with drums, gongs and conches as well as lots of offerings of fruit, sweets and flowers and incense. Jane had heard that one has to visit nine temples for good luck so we marked off no. 1 which was a replica of a Khmer (corncob shaped) temple, Hem Monthiat Therawat.
Next, we took a cable car powered by Buddhist monk pedal power across the river to visit a Gothic style Buddhist temple, Wat Niwet Thammaprawat. There was a beautiful flowering sala tree in the grounds, the fragrance was delicious. The church was a bit bizarre, with its western style steeple and stained glass windows with images of Buddha.
On the way back to Ayutthaya we stopped at temple no. 3, Wat Phanan Choeng, which boasts the tallest Buddha in the world. The statue was overwhelming - it had a spiral staircase up the back and monks perched in its lap catching the bolts of saffron nylon fabric that worshippers bought and tossed up, draping them over the statue. There were piles of used saffron drapes on the floor behind the statue. All around the walls were 84,000 tiny alcoves, each containing a tiny Buddha statue, which represent Buddha;s 84,000 words of wisdom. Mr. Pok explained how Buddhists worship - with offerings of lotus buds, three sticks of incense and gold leaf, which they apply to the Buddha statue of their choice. Each person has a particular Buddha posture, depending on the day of the week you were born. I was born on a Monday in the year of the horse and my color is yellow. My Buddha pose is standing with the right hand raised in protection. Buddhists will come and pour oil into a lit lamp in front of the Buddha of their day of the week.
Temple no. 4 was Wat Yai Chai Mongkol with its reclining Buddha, also draped in saffron sheets of nylon with gold leaf pressed on its chin and toes. This temple had a tower which we climbed, in a central courtyard around which about a hundred life sized Buddha statues sat, each one also draped in saffron cloth.
We had a bit of a break from temples and took a boat ride around the Hua Ro Floating Market - it wasn't really floating but decks built out over the water on stilts. Jane wanted to buy a sarong and at Mr. Pok's urging I tried some local street food, kanom krok - coconut and rice pancakes with corn and green onions. They were very tasty!
Then it was back to temples. No. 5 was Wat Phra Mahathat, a huge complex that was burned in the Burmese invasion in 1767. The Buddha statues were originally made of three pieces of sculpted stone, covered in stucco and then lacquered and gilded, but the fire burned off everything but the stone and then almost all the Buddha heads were looted. The roots of a banyan tree grew naturally around one Buddha head which is still there today.
Temple no. 6 was Wihan Phra Mongkon Bophut which has one of the largest bronze Buddhas in Thailand. By this point Jane and I were starting to get a little tired of temples but we had to get up to nine, so the next stop was Wat Na Phra Men which has a Buddha dressed like the Siamese kings of old, and next door in a smaller temple with amazing detailed (but sadly deteriorated) wall paintings dated from the 1860's and a 1500 year old granite Buddha.
Temple no. 8 Wat Lokayasutharam had been destroyed long ago but the large reclining Buddha, with a remarkable cheerful, almost clown like face, remained, and we did a quick drive by Temple no. 9, the Khmer style Wat Chai Wattanaram with smaller Mon style outlying towers before returning to the hotel and cooling off in the pool.
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