Nakhom Pathom

I can talk briefly about Natkon Pathom, a district to the west of Bangkok, but what I really want to talk about is our new "reader" for those following this blog. I saw her reading the newspaper in the office and I asked the manager, who is bilingual, to ask her how she feels about her new reading abilities. The manager asked her and she said: “it was as if I was blind all my life and now I can see”

Enough said. I decided to go to the Rose Garden today in Nakon Pathom because I have not been yet and Sylvia said it was quite nice when she went with the Harris’ last year. As usual, I never got there. Since this is the 2,500 anniversary of Buddhism, the Thais have really done a nice a nice job with commemorations. The taxi driver took me, he said, to the most beautiful street in Thailand and it may well have been. About an hour west of Bangkok we went past Uttayan where I took the picture of the bronze Buddha while soaking my feet in mud, I might add. (They even water the grass here!). There were beautiful ponds, scriptures on stones written in Thai and lovely art work as you can see from the pictures. Mandalay has something similar in what they call the biggest book in the world, but it is written in Sanskrit I believe. Here, these huge slabs were written in Thai so at least people, who are literate, can read Buddhist teachings, I assume.

On the way to the gardens, we naturally had to sample the best restaurant around ( why not, I was paying) and then visit two wats. The wats, interestingly enough, both had markets all around them ( as they all do) as well as schools attached to the premises. As I have said in earlier blogs, I am sure it is similar to Biblical days where Jesus took such exception to trading near a religious site the Temple) but Buddhism seems to have a different understanding of spirituality anyway. I do not want to try to explain it, because I can’t, but the hordes of people that visit specific Temples take the whole “package” and visit specific Wats if they want to pray for good health, or wealth, or love or whatever it is they are looking for. There is a wat for everything. Once they are there, why not pick up the week’s shopping and have a good lunch. They spend the whole day at the Wat anyway, sitting on the floor, meditating, attending lectures or adorning the Buddhas with gold leaf. Quite a different concept then the Judeao-Christian service.

Tomorrow, I have to play golf. Enough of siteseeing. I need a rest!