Today was Visakha Bucha Day, a day celebrated in temples all over Thailand and the world. It's probably the most important worshipping day for the Buddhist community in the world.
As the highlight of the day, people walk around the 'Bot', an important building of a temple.
On the temple grounds and around it all kind of events are happening, a small market is going on with lots of food and small things to buy and in the temple grounds, all kind of Buddha amulets and statues can be bought.
In our local Wat (Wat is the Thai word for Temple), Wat Plai Laem, it was extremely busy.
Here's a view of the display of various Buddha amulets and medals.
One of the more popular spots on the temple grounds.
In this picture, you can see a big heart, which will be placed in a massive new Buddha statue on the temple grounds. This heart is filled with thousands of very small Buddha amulets, each costs one Baht and you're supposed to put as many amulets in the heart in correspondence with your age.
In this picture, the money for the small Buddha amulets that end up in the heart, is collected. This money will be used to help build and maintain the various projects going on at the temple grounds.
This is a typical Thai temple fair feature. In trees on the temple grounds, small wrapped papers are put up and for 10Baht per paper, one can get a paper out of the tree. The paper has a number on it (with a Buddha message written on it as well) and one gets a small 'price', a bar of soap, a toothbrush, a note bloc or similar small items per paper that you get out of the tree.
The money collected is used for maintaining or building on the temple ground.
Hopefully you enjoyed this little insight in daily Thai life.
Any feedback is appreciated.
Camille
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