Before our visit to Bangkok, we already knew that we gotta dress up (using their word) politely when visiting the temples and palace. What they meant by polite is no slippers and no sleeveless garments for both genders, and no shoter-than-knee shorts or skirts for ladies. Basically, the outfits cannot be too revealing as a form of respect.
So, we all wore jeans and short-sleeved shirts that day, despite the hot hot hot weather and everyone would rather be in shorts and singlets. We saw some tourists, probably not aware of this rule, dressed rather scantily. They would have to borrow the shawls prepared by the temple to cover up the shoulders and legs.
Wat Pho, or the The Temple of the Reclining Buddha, as its name suggested, is famous for its reclining Buddha (about 40 meter long, the biggest in Thailand i think). The body of the Buddha is gold plated, and the eyes and feet are engraved with mother of pearl. The reclining position actually signifies the passing of the Buddha into nirvana (something i came to know when 贝 told me about it while we were there).
We had to remove our shoes to go into the main hall where the Buddha resides. In fact, this applies to all the Wat we visited -- no shoes allowed in the main halls that house the statues of the deity.
We were amazed at how huge the statue is. Too bad that there are many pillars in the building, blocking the full view of the Buddha.
Here's a clip showing some parts of the Buddha:
The only place where we could take a picture with the full image of the Buddha was at his feet. Tourists were practically lining up here, taking turn to snap a picture with the Buddha. 贝 and i were lucky that when it was our turn, the people beside us had moved away and we didn't get strangers into our picture.
Other than the statue, what we found interesting was these 108 bronze bowls placed along the walls of the hall. These bowls were for the visitors to drop coins into them as an auspicious gesture.
We donated some money and got a bowl of coins to join in the fun. Everyone was walking slowly behind one another, dropping one coin at a time into the bronze bowls. The clank of coins never stopped from the time we stepped into the hall till the time we left.
I did not get to drop the coins into all the 108 bowls because i ran out of coins. Apparently, the bowl of coins i got from the donation was not filled up with 108 coins exactly. 贝 also didn't get to complete the ritual for all the 108 bowls, but Ting actually had more coins left when she reached the last bowl and dropped all into it.
Labels: travel
