Be Bop Stupa Trip (Thanks Makaila)

So here we are in Chiang Mai. Matt H. at church suggested this NW corner of Thailand and we were ready to see another portion of the country. (Ken and Chet suggested this also. By the way....you can go anywhere in the world, and Chet has already been there. Twice!) An hour plane ride and we are here. This is hardly the most isolated spot on earth but I will admit it is a bit more rural, small-town-grown-big-with-tourism, user-friendly, old-struggling with the modern. type of place.

Someone asked me if I am seeing a lot of people wearing those loose fitting Thai pants. Colorful, traditional.

Yes, I am. Tons of people are wearing them. All tourists from Central Europe and the States. The local populace is in jeans or shorts. Asian tourists are in Khakis. It's a whole new world out there.

On the local map it seems to indicate that there are a lot of temples here in Chiang Mai. Looking out my 4th floor hotel room one can count about a half dozen temple spires within a few city blocks. This bears looking in to.

The plan was: avoid being run over by traffic and look at and take a photo of every temple, stupa, chedi and Buddha that we could find in the next four hours. I'd say that after that time, and a rain storm that found us seeking refuge (along with several temple dogs) in a fantastic Buddhist temple and a bowl of Italian minestrone soup which increased my core body temperature by about 3 degrees in the muggy mid-90's post rain....we were successful. Though I imagine we saw but a fraction of this town's temples.

Heading down the street I kept looking down the side streets to locate the temples I had seen from my hotel room. I found one on street #3 and #6 an #8. Each one was sitting in the midst of a neighborhood and was crumbling and looked very old. They were all about the size of a small house in the States. Obviously these had been places of devotion in quieter simpler times and had fallen into disrepair but they were still used by the faithful because there were small Buddhas on the stupas and dripped candle wax. Across the street, construction workers build bamboo scaffolding for a construction project. They glance down as I circle the stupa and take a photo. Life goes on.

A quarter mile along we enter the gates of the old city. These were built in the 1400's and I note that the brick work is similar to the old stupas I have been seeing. Now we are in the heart of the Old City and the map indicates numerous stupas (sacred monuments), Buddhist Temples and monasteries. Onward we go.

We come to one which sets the tone for the others, in that, elephants decorating the temple grounds is a dominant theme here in Chiang Mai. Indeed, they do have an elephant park in the outskirts which is a big tourist draw. Isn't that the progression of things? Nature. Then religion incorporates nature into the faith and finally the government sanctions it (elephants) for a tourist draw.

Several of the temples have these beautiful, colorful pictures which depict (I am assuming) Buddha in his life and travels and travails. In all pictures, nature at its most primeval is filled with deer and wild animals abounding (and strangely enough packs of wild dogs just like the ones that ominously roam temple grounds today.) He overcomes evil forces, finds beautiful maidens. I really don't know....I'd have to schedule a "chat with a monk" to find out about the history depicted in these paintings. (And they really do have such things)

Now we are going through neighborhoods and each has a temple and buddha and stupa and many carved elephants and graceful swooping-roofed buildings. Many are under re-construction...always a good sign. Lots of saffron robed monks staffing the front desk. Lots of signs advising the women tourists what and what not to wear. Lots of female tourists totally ignoring the signs. Lots of monks ignoring the women who are ignoring the the signs. It's a very Zen existence and the parallel societies of tourists and monks get along well. (I did see a policeman at the Grand Palace in Bangkok actually stop a young Japanese woman from entering a sacred area. He indicated her Poured-into tight pants. She pulled out her T-Shirt tail to cover herself down to her knees. Everyone was happy and life resumed).

Around here, life is a bit more casual and the vast majority of tourists are respectful. I'd say the clothing that most wear is "Northface." It's probably made down the road.

In Rome every Piazza has a cathedral or two. Well, in Chiang Mai, every block has one or two Buddhist temples and monasteries and elephant carvings. Peer out the side window of one temple and you can see two more temples across the courtyard.

And we stopped in them all.

The absolute best is the: and I am not making up this name..."Temple of the Big Stupa". I've never seen anything like it. I'll offer a more complete writing of it in my "E-Gram" this week. But, I will include a couple photos of it at the bottom here #3 & #4) It is huge, from the 14th century and partially destroyed by an earthquake and at one time a temple on the grounds of this Big Stupa, housed the Emerald Buddha! That is the same Emerald Buddha I saw the other day, which now resides in Bangkok. The people up here found it or carved it, the capital city pulled rank and got it. But, as previously noted...the Emerald Buddha is not emerald after all, it is just jade. So, who gets the last laugh.?

Peace, Bob