Chiang Mai’s history goes back 700 years, and it feels a lot like old town Key West. It’s a jumble of buildings set very close to each other, with lots of color. The old city is very small – just about a square mile. Our hotel is just outside the old city.
The day we hit town on our “Temple Tour” also happened to be graduation day for at least some of the 6 universities in town, along with the accompanying traffic and mayhem that goes with that. When you combine that with the fact that any time a member of the Royal Family travels down a road it has to be closed, you can imagine the chaos.
Outside the colleges, there are dozens and dozens of vendor booths selling just about anything which you could slap “Class of 2010”. Flowers and stuffed animals seemed to predominate, mostly in what we in the US would think of as “Easter” colors – muted pastels, purple, pink, green, blue, yellow, etc. People were lined up several deep to take pics of their graduates, their parents, grandparents, siblings and the sign in front of the University, proving once again that many things are universal.
The interesting thing to us was that, although the temperature was in the high 70’s by about 10 in the morning and destined to climb to the mid-80’s, everyone -- without exception – was wearing a hoodie or a jacket of some type like it was cold out.
This seems to explain the minimal air conditioning in cars. Whereas we in the US immediately turn the AC to “sub-arctic” and then turn it down, they gradually turn it on a little, only approaching that which we’d find comfortable.
About 20 years ago, Buddhist temples were declining as young people no longer had any interest in joining the monastaries. That’s now changing, in part because of the internet. Most students have internet access and computers, and it’s led to a sharing of information and a resurgence of interest in the history and teachings of the religion.
At about age 12, many parents send their kids off to join the monastaries as novices, or apprentice monks. This is in part a financial decision, as it gets them into a good school and avoids having to pay private school tuition. It also provides some element of control over the kids because their motorcycles are taken away and they’re locked down in their dormatories after 6pm each night.
Monks and novices have two meals a day, breakfast and an early lunch. By noon they’re supposed to be done eating, although they can have soy milk in the afternoon – they’ve apparently figured out that kids who are light headed because they don’t have any sugar in their systems need a little afternoon boost.
The unspoken rule is that it also promotes chastity, since if you’re hungry you’re less likely to be thinking about sex.
Some wear yellow robes, whereas some are more orange or even a brownish color. These relate to different sects, just as in the Christian religion Dominican monks were brown whereas Benedictines wear black. They recognize and respect each other, though, as a part of the same religion.
Many of the inner city congregations are having financial problems, since their support population is dwindling as areas go more commercial. There’s not enough families to support the temple. We learned the same thing about some Jewish and Christian congregations in New York City – they’re land rich, but don’t have enough people to create cash flow to support the efforts.
This is the year 2553 in the Buddhist calendar. It predates the western calendar by 543 years different.
Monks don’t wear underwear, so running is out for the boys. As a result you don’t get novices on athletic teams at school.
Buddhists use a lunar calendar, and have services at the full and half moon, as well as on holy days.
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