"Tou Tung!"

Today was my last night with my host family and it went incredibly well. When I got home I took my last routine bike ride through the town of Doisaket, stopping to take photos of the rice fields and wat (temple). After hand washing my clothes by hand in the large water bins outside, I sat down to a magnificent spread. We ate the biggest fish I’ve ever seen and lamb moo, which is supposed to bring good luck to whoever eats it on their journey. My host father bought Heineken beers for us to share.

Before we began to eat I read a little paragraph that my Thai teacher had helped me compose. I thanked my host family for having me, feeding me such excellent food, helping me with my Thai homework and taking me to visit beautiful wats. My host mother became teary eyed. Then I gave them an enlarged, framed photo of the three of us in front of about 20 golden Buddha statues at wat Lamphun. I also made a card with a mango on the front of it, because I love mangoes so much, and they joke about it all of the time. On the inside of the card I wrote thank you in Thai, Krap Kuhn Ka, and drew little pictures of things that reminded me of my time with the family (and might similarly remind my family of me). When my host mother saw the drawing of the fruit gnoc (a word I have a horrible time pronouncing), and me with a flashing headlamp, she lost it and started laughing. The laughter soon turned into tears as she looked at the other photos that I printed to give the family (a few of me in the traditional Lana outfit).

My host mother got up and gave me a hug, which is a big deal because Thai people don’t hug. I then shared an awkward hug with my host father, who I could tell wasn’t used to hugging, and began to eat dinner. My host mother had to leave the table for a few minutes to dry her tears and regain her composure. It was really dear to see her react so strongly to me leaving. I knew that she and I had bonded over lots of confusion and laughter, but I didn’t know how much she enjoyed having me around.

Dinner was a combination of comfortable silences and small talk. I felt extraordinarily proud when I understood my host father on my own for the first time in five weeks (he said that he was glad I decided to eat in, rather than go to a restaurant because the atmosphere was much more relaxed).

After dinner we did some homework. Even though Ajaan Sasitorn hadn’t assigned any homework I asked her to give me some extra work to do with my host family on our last night because they’re favorite activity is helping me with my homework. When I look back at my home-stay I will remember my host mother and father crowded around me in the evenings helping me with reading and writing. My host father’s voice saying, “Tou Tung!” (correct!) will be stuck in my head for quite a while.

The Golden Triangle

Leaving the villa we drove along a mountain range at one bend in the road I emitted a sound of awe. Ally’s host father pulled the car over and we hopped out to look at the view. With mountains on the left, I looked down at a vast valley. The view was incredible and I could see so much. In the distance Ally’s host father pointed out the golden triangle, where Thailand, Burma and Laos meet. Even though I couldn’t pin point the triangle, I was delighted to be looking out at three countries at once.

King's Mother's Villa

After visiting the temple in Chiang Rai we drove to the villa of the king’s late mother. My ears popped several times as we climbed higher and higher through the mountains. When we arrived I could hardly see more than 3 feet in front of me because of thick fog. Once again, I was in a cloud.

We walked around the exquisite garden, full of foreign flowers, as the fog cleared and sun came out. The Villa itself was large, made of wood and seemingly simplistic. In the main room there was a large photo of the king’s mother. Everyone on the tour bowed, and did the wy (hands clasped with head bowed) three times. I did it incorrectly at first, so I had to do it six times. In every photo of the king’s deceased mother she was wearing red because she was born on Sunday.

In Thailand there are certain colors to wear for each day of the week. Sunday: Red, Monday: Yellow, Tuesday: Pink, Wednesday: Green, Thursday: Blue, Friday, Black, Saturday: Purple. Every morning that I get on the song tao to go school at least two thirds of the occupants are wearing the color of the day. Wearing the color of the day, however, tends to be a tradition to which only the older generations adhere. The daily colors started as something that only members of the royal court paid attention to, but the lay people have adopted it as well.

The most impressive part of the king’s mother’s villa was the balcony that looked out over the most beautiful mountain range. The view took my breath away. I could see mountains beyond mountains with low-lying clouds in between. Walking through the gardens I looked out over a ledge and could see into a cloud. Looking up I’d never felt so close to the sky while firmly standing on the ground.

A visit to Wat Rong Khun, Chiang Rai

Saturday was a day packed full of things to do. At 6:30 in the morning joined Ally and her host family to travel to Chaing Rai—another city about 200 kilometers north. The ride through the countryside was beautiful we’d climb up mountains and then coast down. Small wats would pop up everywhere. We passed an enormous golden Buddha statue, for which the mountains made a stunning backdrop. The sole purpose of our visit to Chaing Rai was to see the Wat Rong Khun. It is a famous wat that is entirely white with many small mirrors to make it glimmer. Thailand’s most famous artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, built the wat and there was a gallery of his art on the temple grounds. His artwork is very colorful and has a distinctive style. Some of his later pieces tackle issues like poverty, globalization and global warming, but most of his work reflects his Buddhist faith. It was interesting to see Buddhist inspired paintings, in contrast to the many Christian inspired paintings that I’ve seen in the U.S. and elsewhere.

To see his artwork: http://www.rama9art.org/chalermchai/index.html

The interior of the wat has not been finished and there were apprentices working on the painting on the wall when we went inside. On the back wall there was a finished painting of a Buddha, then a white marble Buddha mounted on the wall, a golden Buddha sitting in front of it, and then even lower there was a seated monk in meditation. We later found out that the monk was a was statue, which explains why it could sit still for so long (although I’ve seen some monks remain still for a fairly long time in the past…they train for it).

The wat was very beautiful, but I got the impression that it was something Kositpipat had done to elevate his own status. The whole complex seemed self-glorifying. There were photos of the artist everywhere and the pamphlet I picked up talks only about him and his want to make merit. Having learned about and observed Thai society, I saw it a bit differently.

Thailand has a hierarchical society, with the royal family at the top, followed by monks and then lay people. Status is everything. So what could an internationally famous artist do to attain even more status without becoming a monk and giving up the comfortable lifestyle afforded by his riches? He could build a temple! But Wat Rong Khun is not just any temple. It is one of the most complex and aesthetically pleasing wats in all of Thailand. While I am convinced that his artwork, including the design of the temple, is inspired by his Buddhist faith, I am not entirely sure that his effort to make merit is not without some other societal motive.

Wat Rang Kuhn

Fun Adventure Friday

Fun Fridays just keep getting better and better. I thought that it would be tough to top rock climbing, spelunking, ziplining and rapelling through a cave, but the next Friday we were taken to the most perfect waterfall. This past Friday was even more stellar. We hiked up the mountain Doi Soithep, stopping at a forest monastery on the way and finally arrived at one of the most important temples in northern Thailand, Wat Doi Soithep. The hike was steep and incredibly exhausting. It was incredibly humid, raining on and off, and the altitude made it more difficult to breathe and many of us felt lightheaded. At one point I realized that we were hiking through a cloud. Once at the top we were able to explore the beautiful wat. The challenging hike was well worth it.

The wat had a long set of stairs that let up to it. The perimeter of the main temple had stalls were Buddhist nuns , maechi, sold lotus flowers and other things to offer at the temple. Buddhist nuns are rare in Thailand and are, unfortunately, not very well respected. As a religion major, it was quite a treat to see the nuns in their white robes with shaved heads. The temple had many golden Buddhas, an emerald Buddha statue, and a giant golden structure in the center in which a relic from the Buddha has supposedly been placed. The Thai people that were visiting the Temple clasped lotus flowers between their hands and walked around the golden structure with their heads bowed. There were lots of pharang (white/western people) at the temple and I felt embarrassed for many of them were not dressed riproy.

The concept of riproy is very important to Thai culture. It essentially means to be polite and proper. Unlike in the U.S. the clothes that Thai people wear are (usually) not a reflection of personal style, but rather a way of showing respect to the people around you.

At the temple women must cover their shoulders and shouldn’t wear shorts or short skirts. Those are the most basic clothing guidelines, but in general, you should look respectable. At Wat Doi Soithep I saw a man with his shirt half way unbuttoned and chest hair showing and another young traveler with his shirt off climbing up the temple steps. Going shirtless in public is a big no no. I am glad to have received cultural training from ISDSI and my home stay, but seeing all of the non-riproy pharang on Friday made me wonder how many times in the past I’d been blissfully unaware of cultural rules and had been inadvertently offensive.

While at the wat I had a neat multicultural experience when I eavesdropped on a tour of the temple being given in French.

Just outside the main temple, were the nuns were selling flowers, there was a look out and on a clear day you can see all of Chiang Mai. On Friday you could see nothing but white. As a friend of mine said, “It feels like we’re on a castle in a cloud.” Indeed sometimes I’d see parts of clouds coming down from above, slide over the roof of the wat, and feel the chill as the mist swept by me.

At the base of the temple stairs there were lots of vendors with colorful trinkets to sell. The vendors are accustomed to seeing lots of foreigners, so the prices were on the whole, a bit higher. With what little Thai we had, my friends and I were able to haggle and get the vendors to sell us things for more reasonable prices. However, my friend Erin and I had an experience that can be used as a good example for how pharang are viewed and treated by vendors:

The group was about to leave the hike had left up hungry. We went to a woman who was selling sticky rice that had been stuffed in bamboo and roasted. I’ve had these treats before and they are quite good. We repeatedly asked the woman how much they cost, but she kept ignoring us, so pressed for time, we got fed up and left. A few steps down another vendor laughed and told us in Thai that she was blind and hard of hearing. We asked how much they cost and he told us 10 baht. We returned to the woman, spoke more loudly and just as we were about to finish the transaction, another vendor a few steps us yelled, “Yee-sip Baht. Pharang!” The old woman stopped the transaction and demanded 40 baht. We were astonished.

Infestation

Ants have taken up residence in my computer. Ants are everywhere in Thailand and apparently computers are the perfect place to hide. Ajaan Mark warned us about this last week and he painted a pretty grime picture as to the fate of computers that get infested...blasted.