Bangkok Temple Tours

Thai people still are deeply religious. In fact, Thailand is the country where the largest part of the population are practicing Buddhists.  And you can still see that when you walk into a temple – people perform ceremonies, pray and meditate all the time. They make offerings to shrines, dieties, monks and holy figures. They ask for something they want or need in their life. They go to the temples to talk to monks and ask for their advice and blessing before embarking on a venture or when they have obstacles, difficulties or problems. They come to express their gratitude for positive things they experienced and to honor their ancestors.

If you want to go on a Bangkok temple tour, you can often see many rituals being performed, gestures being made and so on. It helps to have someone with you who can explain the meaning of these things and even guide you through a ritual if that is what you want.

Photocredit: Gabriel Perez

One thing that is very typical for temples in Bangkok (and also other parts of Thailand) is that they are decorated with multi-colored glass mosaic. This is an art-style that started in the 19th century, so a temple that has these kinds of decorations is either built during or after the 19th century. Sometimes an older temple gets renovated and they put these glass mosaics up too. Nowadays, these glass mosaics are still being used.
These are symbols of the countries richness in gemstones of all kinds of colors. It is also possible that the mirrors are used as a way to deflect evil spirits, as is common in Chinese feng shui. Thai artists assimilated many elements of Chinese culture and beliefs, and this could be one of the results of such an assimilation, however, it can’t be said for sure.
Whatever the underlying meaning – it can make for spectacularly beautiful light effects in temples in Bangkok during different times of the day, and is in a way a good representation of the love that Thai people have for intensity and variety, which is also reflected in food, where they often mix opposing flavors together to balance each other out, and other areas of life. This is a very different concept from the Japanese sense of refined subtlety, which many foreigners can easily appreciate.
One reaction that I often get when I bring friends to temples in Bangkok is that they feel the temples are quiet “carnivalistic” (if that’s a word). Some people can relate to it, some people do not like it. Whatever it is to you, try to avoid any preconceived notions and concepts of what things should be like, and approach these temples with an open mind – that way, you’ll discover the joy and beauty that can be found within these temple walls.
This particular picture is taken from the Grand Palace (Wat Prakaew) in Bangkok.

Last year I walked around the Wat Samphanthawongsaram Worawiharn and there was some construction work going on. For example, they where making some decorative elements for the temple, and you can see them in their raw state in this picture:

Elements for Temple Decoration being made

You can see how much precision and detailwork goes into these temples. And while I enjoy looking at the finished work, discovering these little pieces of Buddhist work in progress was even more delightful.

There’s a temple not far from Samsen Road in the Kao San Area. Inside, you can find two wax figures that look pretty realistic. (Makes Madame Tousseauds look boring). One is the founder of the temple, who died about ten years ago. His name is Pra-Sri-Ar-Ri-Ya-Mu-Nee. The other one is Luang Poo Waen, he was a popular monk in Thailand and the people believe he was a very good monk.

It happens that people walk in there and think that these are real, living monks

In these pictures you can see young Thai buddhist monks ringing bells in the Golden Mountain temple in Bangkok.

They are wearing the typical orange robes and are walking all upstairs the Golden Mountain temple.

If you haven’t been there, make sure you get to see it. It’s a really great temple and it’s actually refreshing to be up there.

While this monk is actually just made out of wax (I found it on the Jatujak weekend market), it’s not uncommon to find smoking monks in Thailand.

Even though strict monks won’t smoke, there are some monks who don’t take the rules that serious. “Mai pen rai” as they say in Thailand.

When you see pictures of the Wat Pho temple in Bangkok most of the time it’s the Golden Buddha or the majestic temple walls.

But if you look around a bit more, you’ll also find things like this – catching dust in an abandoned corner.

There was actually a group of Thai teenagers listening to American ganster rap and smoking in a secluded area inside the temple compound, but right next to the Golden Buddha.

I find it funny to see that just 10 meters from an area were tourists are almost constantly rubbing ellbows on each other because it’s so overcrowded, and then you walk a couple of steps and you find an area were nobody goes and a group of “outlaws” occupies the space inside a temple compound. The monks don’t seem to care, and the tourists don’t seem to notice.

Surat Osathanugrah, a Thai businesman, politician and recently photographer who’s net worth has been estimated by the Forbes magazine to be $180.000.000,00 died of blood infection at the age of 78.

His funeral will be held at the That Thong Temple’s Chao Chom Pavilion on May 9th.

Surat Osathanugrah was president of the Royal Photographic Society of Thailand and his photographes became widely known with the “Vanishing Bangkok” exhibition where he featured different Bangkok lifestyles and the rapidly dimishing group of people who live along Bangkoks “klongs” (canals).
Vanishing Bangkok was also made into a beautiful photobook.

He also published two other photographic books titled Luang Phrabang and Goodbye Bangkok.

Mr. Osathanugrah already had a good start with his family business that he inherited from his parents. Back in the 20th century his parents ran a pharmacy and supplied the Thai army with a traditional medicine – they then recieved a title from the king of Thailand. Fast forward till the 1980s and Mr. Surat Osathanugrah who’s running the business in the third generation oversees the M150 energy drink, which will become one of the companies most successfull products. His children follow in his artistic footsteps and both sons and grandsons are involved in the music industry.

Bangkok Post just posted a cool article about the Wat Pho being included in the regional Memory of the World (MOW) by the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

Khun Preeda (Preeda Tangtrongchitr), 70 years old, who runs the massage school at the Wat Pho temple, was very happy about this development as it secured traditional Thai wisdom from greedy businesses. (There was a case a couple of years ago where a Japanese company tried to trademark the term Rusie Dutton).

I just stumbled across this funny news from ABC news. A German tourist once stole a little piece from the Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and brought it back home to Germany. Ever since he had bad luck until he finally sent the piece of the temple, which was  a glass tile, back to the tourism authority of Thailand – along with a letter of apology and he also wrote that he’d send money to donate to the temple in hope that he could thus get rid of his bad luck.