For my last trip for a while, I ended up in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I was lucky enough to stay in the Mandarin Oriental hotel, which has gone to the top of my list of favourite hotels of all time, but that’s for a different post.
I took advantage of the time I had to visit Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, which is a Theravada Buddhist temple. I took the lazy way up, riding the funicular up the mountain, which was a smart option seeing as it was 35c. I did walk down, though. Funnily enough, on the walk down there are lots of traders selling religious paraphernalia from every major world religion, showing faith in capitalism.
This is just one row of Buddhas. What is interesting, at least to me, is that most of the representations of Buddha in this temple are of the young version, not the fat jolly Buddha I’m more familiar with. It probably demonstrates my ignorance of this representation of faith, but I guess I’ll survive.
More to come…..
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