China Town Walking Tour

This weekend, we went on a walking tour in China Town to see several of the temples. The Chinese people believe that "merit" earns entry to heaven. One way someone can earn merit is to give money to the building of a Chinese temple or statue. In Thailand, there are many Chinese Thais who blend the cultures of these two countries in one. The result is many Chinese temples filled with many gold figures in Thailand.

This first building is Wat Traimit Wittayaram. This building holds the Chinatown heritage center and a Buddha made of more than five tons of gold! The gold statue was created seven hundred years ago, but hidden by laquer and plaster during wartime. In 1955 the image was being moved with ropes when the ropes broke and the image fell, breaking the plaster and revealing the gold Buddha inside. Sorry I didn't get a picture of him. Next time.

There are alligators in the river, but someone decided they are good luck and so they took a few of them out and put them in front of a temple. Good thing this massive guy was too hot to move! We were only separated by this fence.

We had a very nice American girl from the embassy take us around to look at lots of cool temples and statues and such. She didn't know as much history as we were hoping for, but we got to see some cool things. The main points she covered were to always take your shoes off in temples and never point your feet towards Buddha. Someday we will do more research or take a tour from a Chinese or Thai person. But, for now, here are our pictures from our tour.

Under these statues are plaques with pictures on them. People pay to put their ashes inside the walls of their favorite temple when they die.
Bells are good luck.

A Chinese Arch made for the King of Thailand who has been the King for many many years and is a big part of Thai culture and religion. We must never mention the possibility of the King not being around someday.

This was a small little building on the side of a small road. It was interesting to see people pass by quickly and pause slightly to bow to the temple as they hurried down the road.
Many of the temples are under construction in preparation for the King's birthday celebration in December.

This is a temple/motorbike parking lot. Interesting combo.

Wendy loves seeing all of the motorbikes around the city. She does much better in the car when she's looking for motorbikes....especially since they are always there! Except for on the expressway where motorbikes aren't allowed.
Cool glowing eyes.
I can't wait to go back to Chinatown to shop for fabric!