Friday, April 25, 2008

We're still here.

Sorry for the lapse in posting-- Josh has another one of his encyclopedic posts in progress, but hasn't finished it yet. After he's gotten that one up I'll post something about the elephants we met in Chiang Mai...

In the meantime, a few fun things have happened to us:

- Our main shipment from the US arrived. Hooray! Our apartment is now a bit cluttered, but we'll get everything stowed away soon.

- We got a chance to see "Forbidden Kingdom", the new Jackie Chan/Jet Li flick. Fun! It had some nice inspiration from some of the more fun Chinese legends, particularly the Monkey King, Sun Wukong.

- Tomorrow we are going on a day trip to Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand (from the mid-1300's to the mid-1500's). This is a trip run by the Shangri-La Hotel, down by the Chao Phraya river: we take a bus upriver to the site (a trip of a couple of hours), tour around, then hop on a boat to have lunch and cruise back to Bangkok. Hopefully we'll get some good pictures.

That's all for now, but watch this space for details...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Chiang Mai -- An old New City

Chiang Mai.

The glorious capital of the northern Lanna Kingdom, it's name means 'new city'.

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According to Thai history, Chiang Mai was founded by King Mengrai in 1291. It has long been an important city, continuing into the modern age when it is the second largest city in Thailand. Our trip to this ancient city corresponded with one of the most popular festivals:

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Songkran is the celebration of the Thai new year. Although they currently operate on the western calendar, the 13th-15th of April is still the celebration of the traditional New Year. People take time to clean out their houses, make merit and wash the temples, reverence their elders, etc. Some of the most common traditional practices involve water, pouring it over the hands or head of an individual as a blessing. Chedis and statues of the Buddha are also blessed.

(Ellen adds: Below is the main chedi at Wat Phra Singh, which Josh will talk about later. The gold object is a water bucket in the shape of a sacred swan or "hongsa", which can be filled with water and pulled up to the top in order to "bathe" the chedi.)

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While the old traditions can still be found throughout the city, one of the most visible aspects of Songkran today are the constant water fights. In Chiang Mai, these seem to take place mostly near the old moat, where water and targets are plentiful.

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Songkran is officially the 13th-15th, but Chiang Mai is known for having one of the largest celebrations anywhere, and things had already begun to get started Friday evening. By Saturday morning, vendors and celebrants had set up around the moat, preparing for later in the day.

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We started Saturday with an attempt to hit the National Museum, but apparently when they said 'closed for the Songkran holiday', they meant Saturday as well--so instead we started the day like many others and went to a nearby temple.

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Wat Jed Yod, or the Temple of the Seven Peaks, was founded by the Lanna King Ti-Logaraja when Chiang Mai hosted the 8th World Buddhist Council in the 15th century. It was modeled after the Maha Bodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, India. The seven chedi on top of the largest structure, from which the temple gets its name, were said to come from India, and they represent seven sacred mountain peaks.

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Worshippers were at Wat Jed Yod, making offerings for the coming new year, including these 'sand chedi'. The origin of this practice was the symbolic return of sand that worshippers had inadvertently carried off in their sandals back to the temple grounds. Now you can find them everywhere during Songkran.

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Leaving the temple we had our driver pick us up--we had hired a driver for the morning rather than trusting to finding one of the red, omnipresent songtaew headed our way. Taxis are still rather rare in Chiang Mai--most hired transportation are converted pick-up trucks which carry multiple people at once. If you flag one down, they'll ask where you are going. If they are empty or already headed your way, they will quote you a price and take you along. If not, they'll waive you off.

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Fortunately, our taxi driver had been paid for four hours, and stuck with us. Knowing our museum trip had been canceled, he took us on a brief tour of the four corners and five gates of the city.

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King Mongrai planned the layout of the city from the very beginning, and the spirits of the four corners are supposed to work with the spirit of the center to protect the city. The city walls have likely been repaired over and over again, but the basic layout of the city has remained the same, and the impressive walls are still there--or at least parts of them.

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Our driver dropped us off at Wat Phra Sing, which was hopping compared to Wat Jed Yod on the outside of the old city. Inside the main prayer hall (where we had to remove our shoes but they did allow pictures) we saw worshipers being blessed by monks, making offerings to the Buddha, and praying for good fortune.

(Ellen adds: It's hard to see in this picture, but the statue of the monk holding the fan is covered with often-raggedy bits of gold leaf. A common way to make merit here is to buy some small squares of gold leaf and apply them to the various Buddha images, etc., to help "restore" the glory of the images. The intent is more important as the result, as it's very hard to get an even application! The gold leaf squares typically cost about 10 baht each, and there is a little pot of resin or paste sitting by the statue. There is an entire industry devoted to pounding out the gold squares less than paper-thin for this use-- the American Women's Club magazine had a very interesting article about it recently!)

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We walked around the temple grounds--people were pouring water on the chedi behind the prayer hall (above) and there was a garden full of various words of wisdom for people of any religion.

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After Wat Phra Sing we went to the Chiang Mai City Art & Cultural Center, which has an excellent museum (where you can take pictures!).

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Afterwards, we went to a little 'Chinese' restaurant. They served chicken. That's about it. You could have it about four ways. That was it. If you wanted something else, you should go next door. They had four dishes of pork, etc. Despite the limited menu, these little shops are packed with people.

(Ellen adds: This was a "Hainanese" chicken rice stall-- a Singapore delicacy that's very popular here, especially as a street food. It consists of simmered chicken served over rice that's been cooked with the chicken fat, plus chicken broth flavored with garlic and ginger on the side. It's a nice all-in-one meal. In the above picture you can see our two plates of chicken rice + two bowls of broth, plus a plate of pork satay, which they were also grilling up, and a dipping sauce and cucumber salad that came with it. The yellow-green juice I'm drinking is guava juice, and we are also drinking weak jasmine tea, of which pitchers can be found on each table for free. All-in-all, it was a very tasty lunch!)

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Next, we went to the center of the city: Wat Chedi Luang. Built as part of the founding of the city, this temple was to be the center pillar. It has fallen into disrepair, but has also been repaired--and is still under repair. I'm not sure how much they plan to do, but the ruined chedi, which still houses a precious and sacred jade Buddha, is incredible.

(Ellen adds: There are no steps on the side of the chedi in the picture above-- there were only steps on one of the sides. No doubt this symbolizes the difficult path to enlightenment!)

Well, there's more to say, but I'll leave that for another time. You've waited long enough for this... now to get working on more. Hope you like it!