A day at the temple

May 21, 2008 | Filed Under Chiang Mai, Thai life, Thailand | 1 Comment 

One of the days in Chiang Mai we went just outside the city and drove up toward a Buddist temple that was built in the mountains. Buddhism is the primary religion in Thailand, at 95% of the population of 65+ million people. Thats a lot of people! We walked around this rather large temple, then again most of their temples are rather large in the area that it occupy. 

We took the time to observe and ask questions. We noticed the buildings did not lack any detail as every part of them were ornate. With a mixture of reds, golds, and green; these buildings had many designs hard to ignore.

Here is a prominent symbol of the Wheel of Karma, or Dharma wheel. This is a symbol that was actually painted on the ceiling in one of the outside hallways.

All around the temple were the rows of rather large bells. All set up on gold pillars, balanced on a single rod there were usually 3 to 4 in between each pillar. While there, people would walk along, from one end to another, and ring each bell. I believe, please correct me if I am wrong, they believe this will bring them good fortune.

We saw this girl as we were leaving. She and a group of young girls were dancing a traditional dance in Thailand

Spirit Homes Revisited

May 7, 2008 | Filed Under Chiang Mai, Thai life, Thailand | Leave a Comment 

Friends, it just occurred to me that we a lot more to share with you from Thailand. So I will try my best to show you as much as I can and as often, instead of little at a time. So sit back and enjoy!

As you might remember from a previous post, I had mentioned the presence of spirit homes that were on almost every piece of private property. These properties were homes, businesses and even government facilities. In a country that is 95% Buddhist, the Thai people still hang on to superstitions and fears of what happens if they do not appease there personal spirit. These houses are placed somewhere on the property so that the Thai’s would give food, and drink offering, even burning incense everyday to the property’s spirit. If you look at them closely, you will see little figurines of people, and animals of varying sizes. There are spirit homes in many different shapes and sizes and colors. These pictures are just a quick example of the various styles colors and offerings that we saw on this trip.

Here is an example of the offering they would leave. It was pretty cool though to see a bottle of Coke out. I also thought it was kind of interesting to see a little ladder right at the front of this one.

The one below was taken out in front of the Thai Airway offices in Chiang Mai. Interestingly, the spirit home look very similar to these corporate offices.

The one below was taken outside of a tailor shop just minutes away from where we were staying in Chiang Mai. What I like about it is that they probably did not have money to buy it so you can really see that they wanted to please the spirit buy constructing their own.

New from Thailand

May 4, 2008 | Filed Under Chiang Mai, Thai life, Thailand | 2 Comments 

Where ever Recapture goes, whether here in the states or internationally, we want to go into an area that already an organization there with relationships in place. We feel that is vital to understanding the situation that we are going into as well as the people and culture that we are to touch. As you guys might remember, we were working along side of Campus Crusade for Christ in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Mike and Judy are on staff there and were responsible for helping build the huts on the islands that we visited as well. Before we had left we had printed a few extra pictures of some of the people in the trade areas we had introduced to you, the readers, to in this blog. Click here to read the post we did and to see the pictures mentioned. Our intention was to go back to those hard workers and give them those print. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and was not able to make it happen. Judy said, instead, she would do it for us! They have been busy with trips to Vietnam and projects that they have been involved with, Judy did not have a chance to do this. We just received an email from Judy, here is what she said:

“Just want you to know that I finally got your pictures delivered to everyone. Every single delivery was so fun and the people seemed so thrilled that I was giving it to them as a gift. They all tried to pay me for the frames- which is quite funny…..I took the one to the little old lady stringing her flowers. She had gone back to her home village- but her daugher was there (and) said that she would deliver it to her and thanked me

Yesterday, I took them out to the handicraft road. The lady making the Sa papaer had also gone home to her village- but they called out to her husband who also worked there and I gave it to him. I had my new camera that day- with the battery charged and got this photo of him. Sorry- no smiles- but you know the culture well enought to know he was still happy. We also went to the umbrella factory and I showed the next photo to a few people and they all called for this lady and she came out to see me. It was their lunch break. She was so proud of it and kept looking at it. I took photos of her too….Just wanted you to know that I have completed my assignment!”

Judy took pictures of the husband of the Sa paper maker below. If you notice in his right hand, is that picture, framed. 

The picture below is a picture of the umbrella maker with Judy. 

Thank you Judy for sharing these stories with us!