buddhist temples in asia - Wat Asokaram, Samutprakan

I am called a busy bee since I work hard almost every day. I have no weekends, hardly any holidays except on some religious days. Then I seldom have any chance to visit famous places in or outside Bangkok. I am a local of Samutprakan so whenever I am free, usually visit places in my such as the crocodile Farm, province which are tourist attractions the Ancient City and Bangpoo Resort. But there is another place which is very famous for both local people and visitors from nearby provinces that is Wat Asokaram in Bangpoo District, not far from the center of the city. On religious holidays like Makha Bucha or Visakha Bucha Days, Buddhists from various places gather together at that wat in order to make merit and offer food to the monks, there are a lot of monks and nuns as well as upasika, ladies who haven't shaved their hair but wear white attire as nuns and also stay overnight at the wat . All Buddhists who go to this temple usually pay homage to the well-preserved body of the late, Than Por Lee who was renowned for his sermons and principles as a good disciple of Lord Buddha. The wat is surrounded by big trees and small, remote residences of monks and nuns. The uniqueness of this wat is that no dead body is allowed to be brought in for a funeral ceremony or even for burial or cremation. It is interesting to see a lot of people from all walks of life going to this temple to seek peace of mind and to listen to the preaching of the monks as the correct guidance for their everyday life. I am also one of these people who find myself so attracted to the calmness and sacredness of the place that I hang around the place whenever I an free in order to satisfy my thirst for the tranquility of my spiritual search.

Uthai Thani in transition

While the conservation movement is gaining strength in various regions of the country, Uthai Thani-the location of Huay Kha Kaeng-is going through a period of transition following the invasion of outsiders buying up land in the town and in the surrounding forests.

Uthai Thani is not a place that comes up often in conversation; it has no strong identity in terms of business, although it has its natural and cultural attractions-mostly enjoyed by the people of the province.

The Tak Baht Devo alms-offering festival is probably the only event on the provincial calendar that is nationally known. It is held at Wat Sangkas Ratana Khiri, otherwise known as Wat Sakaekrang, located on the top of Mount Sakaekrang, at the end of the annual Buddhist rains retreat.

The name Sakaekrang means much to the people of the province, as it is the name both of the hill and of the calm river running through the heart of the city, lined on both sides by greenery. The river is the source of pla rad, a delicacy for which the province is famous.

During Devo, hundreds of Buddhist monks walk in procession down the naga staircase from the hilltop to receive food from the people who traditionally give uncooked rice in small plastic bags to the monks so that it may be stored for future use.

The festival is organized to mark, according to belief, the time of the Lord buddha's descent from the heavens, allowing beings in hell, the world, and the heavens to see each other, as park of his teachings.

Several thousand people leave their homes early in the morning to participate in the event. Farm people take with them a long wooden stick decorated with coloured paper. These sticks will later be taken home and planted in the rice fields as symbols of good luck for the coming planting season.

At festival time, Uthai Thani becomes very lively for one day in the year. Great changes occur from the normal life of the town. Everything turns very quiet just after 7 p.m. as all commercial businesses close, apart from a few restaurants.

A part of Devo features a contest for Buddha image altars decorated with elephant tusks, but the contest is losing popularity as the importance of conservation is realised.

The invasion by outsiders is not limited to land plots in forest areas but as also pushed land prices higher in the city itself, particularly plots along the beautiful Sakaekrang River. The province is protected to some extent, however, by its poor road network. The bus journey from Bangkok takes four and a half hours.

Searching for special dishes of ''jungle'' food is less easy than might be thought in Uthai Thani, since people have become well informed of the importance of wildlife protection and avoid selling such things, except for wild bamboo shoots which are boiled and bottled for sale.

This boiled bamboo is famous for its taste, but the collection these days is becoming restricted - the conservation factor at work once more.

buddhist temples in asia - Wat Cholapratan Rangsarit

My interesting place is a wat since I am a Buddhist. I am not saying I am a strong one but I like going to my peaceful wat every Sunday morning. The wat I am talking about is Wat Cholapratan Rangsarit at Pakret, Nondaburi.

Wat Cholapratan, He to be short, is managed by Phra Panyananda, the abbot. He proves to be a respectable monk in Buddhism and a lot of people go to make merit and offer food to the monks every day especially on Sundays when the abbot himself or other famous and renowned monks preach knowledgeable and intellectual sermon followed by the merit-making rites.

What impresses and attracts me most is the way the abbot preaches. He emphasizes spiritual growth and maturity without the worries about appearance. He tries to show the followers the truth of life. He gives ex apples of what is considered to be good and what is not.

The surroundings of this wat are also notes for tranquility. People who want peace in mind can, at any time, go there. Just to sit silently in that wat, one can see the causes of one's troubles and the cause-finding method can easily lead to finding suitable solutions. This wat is surrounded by green and tall trees which offer a sense of solitude to those who seek it.

If you have a chance to pass by this wet, drop in and observe the serenity and you will find the truth you may be looking for.

Bangkok thailand activities - Wonderful Bangkok the Tourists Don't See

Bangkok is a wonderful city for sightseers. Since Thailand was never colonized, it has kept its own exotic, oriental feeling. Visitors always visit The Grand Palace, The Floating Market, but there are other places just as interesting. Three of these are Rung-a-Roon Market, Phrakhanong Khlong, and Kuan-Im Palace.

Rung-a-Roon Market stretches from the landing stage of Khlong Prakhanong under the bridge at Sukhumvit Soi 73 back to the main shopping mall of Soi 71. Merchandise ranges from shoes and clothes at the western end to a wide variety of fish and meats at the eastern Khlong side of the market. This market is deep, wide, and very much alive with so much diversity that it keeps more than the immediate neighborhood thriving.

In stark contrast to the pandemonium of Sukhumvit and the hubbub of the market, a trip up Prakhanong Khlong is leisurely and quiet. The boats leave Soi 73 on the hour every hour and arrive at the UL-A-Tissom Mosque half an hour later. They leave the Mosque landing stage for the return circuit on the half hour. The trip takes one past several wats where fish beg for food because fishing is prohibited around wats, and one can see how life revolves around the Khlong. The transition from bangkok's frantic, fuming streets to the slumbering, fish-filled waters is so complete that the journey is rejuvenating.

In another part of the city Kuan-lm Palace suddenly appears on a typical Bangkok street lined with the seemingly unending shop- houses of this city. The vibrant colors of the Buddha images and the temples in the courtyard coupled with the smooth marble paving dazzle the eyes. One of the Buddha images, on top of a five story building reached by a painted spiral staircase, stands several meters tall with a diamond set into the forehead. The palace dragon is though to be the best in Thailand, and the math image-the goddess Kuan-lm is surrounded by 99 bells that worshippers use to select a lucky coin.

These two places and one trip show how Thailand has kept its unique way of life. Rung-a-Roon Market and Khlong Phrakhanong represent bangkok everyday life, while Kuan-Im Palace reflects its religious life. All three reveal the real Bangkok tourists rarely see.

Effects of Tradition on Modern Thai society

All cultures, were traditionally, established according to social characteristics indigenous to their locations. From this viewpoint, this writer insists that societies existed before culture. Culture was acquired over time and did not grow from the ground like the tree. Thai cultural and social traditions, mostly, are admirable. Even the foreign tourist enjoys them. However, Thai tradition has certain limitations which often cannot withstand the rapid change in society. It may finally bewilder their adherents, isolate people from society and produce or sustain misconceptions about the world generally.

Adherents to tradition are usually narrow-minded because they depend upon only the ideas they have been taught by tradition. This may be that they are lazy and would rather accept the information given them instead of “investigating for the truth” as taught by the Khamma whenever they encounter untraditional or specially difficult problem, they try to solve them through traditional means and, failing in this, they become bewildered.

Society needs to be flexible and curious toward new concepts in order to accept them and utilize them. People who stubbornly cling to traditions while their societies change and adapt to new circumstances will finally be ignored by more modern, progressive numbers of society and feel isolated. They may feel bitter because they cannot, or will not change themselves to keep abreast of the times. Societies are perceived by all members thereof as "cold, unemotional and survival-conscious"
synonymous of Nature itself. Unwillingness to adapt to change is both unnatural and self-destructive. People who conduct their lives in society must certainly weigh and balance all events before changing. In order to keep what is good and discard what is useless or improper; yet, they must certain change to remain members in that society.

As before, people who tend to accept tradition instead of fact-finding may finally form wrong ideas about their environment. Traditional thinking makes them stubbornly follow what was reasonable and correct for the time when those traditions were created. However, they have followed them so long that they forgot that traditions started as relatively new ideas and became accepted. They continue to follow these traditions rather than to create new ones, more appropriate for the time.

Their ideas become outdated because they are too lazy or stubborn to update them with new information and these concepts conflict with what is true at the time. It finally makes them feel wrongly about their world.

Not all traditions are useless, and those which are good should be maintained. However, people nowadays too easily discard good traditions
in a blind follow-the-leader trend of “ in with the new, out with the old.” This is practiced without consideration of effect and leads to coldness in society. Yet, blindly following a useless tradition is equally dangerous. The above topic was prepared, simply, to warn against either extreme-total discard of tradition, or total acceptance including some which may be harmful to one person or to everyone as a whole.

Effects of Unemployment on Thai society

The agricultural age saw a people at peace with themselves. There were no factories, no offices, on “ wanted” ads. in the newspapers and no drought pushing them into the cities as we have today. After a few misguided individuals bought or sold their land for industry, they sought work in cities or workers for their factories. As more people "flooded" in, the established group felt more anxious. Furthermore people still
“flood” into Bangkok. Modem Thai city 1ife is very nervous and insecure and unemployment can lead to dangerous consequences. Thais may resent or hate their government because they feel employment is the government's responsibility; they may fight each other in gangs to get what they want. They may also try desperately to leave the country.

Like many societies, Thai people often lay the responsibility upon their government to initiate anything. Employment is therefore considered to be a government issue rather than private sector. When the government fails to stem urban migration and unemployment, the people blame it for not protecting their interests. They may resort to politically-oriented bombing as well as mass protests and destruction to private and government property. The government may Finally resign in shame and dismay over its failure, or may flee from the disaster.

Assuming that a sector of the population lacks the initiative or resources to bomb the government, their growing frustration and resentment may inevitably induce them to form vicious gangs and fight each other for whatever they need and want. They will mass together in large numbers and wage street wars as they did in early Chicago. They may possess war weapons or whatever tools they can find to inflict pain and cause damage. Many people may finally die or be seriously wounded from the fighting.

It is equally possible to predict that the less aggressive among Thai society may try to leave the country in whichever way possible. If they are clever enough, they may try to forge passports to leave Thailand for a foreign country. Others may try to apply for positions overseas and in neighbouring countries, doing whatever is possible. The result could be mass evacuation and emigration and deserted cities.

Given that foreigners may apply here as teachers, etc. because of similar difficulties abroad, it is fairly easy to predict that imagination at least will be a major result of unemployment in Thailand. Gangs have existed for a long time and could escalate into frighteningly dangerous proportions. If urban migration continues, it will induce disaster to extents which no one wants to imagine. A state of anarchy could develop. Anything can happen, but we all hope that “ worse will not come to worst."

Western culture vs Thai culture

Thai culture differs from Western culture in several outstanding ways. Most important are language, cultural origin and cuisine. The location of the culture in terms of the geographical environment is worth mentioning. The area in which a culture is based provides exciting,exotic and striking differences.

Thai language was comprised of more Asian dialects due to its location. Thailand is central to Indochina which receives influences in all three levels from both India and china. Hence' the language borrowed much from Indian and Chinese. The alphabet was ingeniously altered and modeled from Khmer, an other Asian dialect. In the same way, English was a European model derived from the Roman conquest of Germany and France. It later was revised into Middle English and refined to be Modern English.

Thai culture is more prominent as culture produced language. Here, again being central to Indochina is an influence. Visiting Indian Theravadists brought curries, Hinayana Buddhism and the Indian aspects of Thai language. Chinese immigrants and tribes from Xipxongbana, Yunnan, added Chinese culture. Western culture is different because Europe is a collection of independent sites with their own culture. German culture comes from the Goths and Tutons; French from Gaul, and Scandinavia from the Norsemen (vikings). English culture stemmed from Celts, Britons and Gaels whom were ancient cultures in pre-Victorian England, Scotland and Wales.

Finally, the cuisine is different because of available resources. Thailand could receive curry and spice from India or China because visiting merchants or caravans would import it. Therefore, Thai cuisine includes exotic spices and favors as well as identical equipment such as round-bottom pans. Western cooking included spice only after the explorers went to the spice islands, India or China. French and Italian cooking uses wines as seasoning and is cooked in high flames.

The most significant differences between Thai and Western culture reflect district geographical locations. Particularly, the Chinese and Indian influences in Thai language and cuisine borrowed much from these cultures in Thailand as English had borrowed from Europe.