Bangkok is on a river too shallow for cruise ships, so the ship docked at a place called Laem Chabang. It required a 2-hour bus ride to get to Bangkok. And EVERYBODY wanted to go to Bangkok. 17 buses headed up there, and once again I was fortunate enough to be a Tour Escort.The Grand Palace in Bangkok is one of the biggest highlights of this entire voyage. It’s a huge complex of incredibly ornate buildings, built for the Thai royalty. Buddhism and royalty are bound together here, and kings have the spiritual status of Pharaohs.
The complex was started in the late 1700s, and apparently there was unlimited budget and labor. Nowadays, certain religious and royal events still happen in the complex, but you’d never know it. There is a gate, with tickets to purchase, and throngs of tourists.
But once you get in there, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the magnificence of the architecture. Like everybody else, you pull out your camera and start clicking away.
There was a second visit in Thailand, two days later, to a tropical isle called Samui. For all its palm trees and forest and seashore, Samui also had a major tourist stop in the form of a big Golden Buddha, perched on a high hill overlooking the sea. Big parking lot for the place, and many tour buses. Many adjacent gift shops selling little gold buddhas for $20 apiece, a little pot-bellied guy with a big smiling face, and I almost bought one.
Couldn’t do it. I felt ridiculous. Perhaps the Big Buddha of Samui and the Grand Palace complex of Bangkok were built with solemnity and lofty intentions from long ago. But the commercialism reduces the whole thing to the mundane. Apparently with Buddhist approval. Oh well, enjoy the damn pictures.
8 comments:
Wow, that sure didn't disappoint!
What a strange feeling I experienced looking at these wonderful pictures!
Having been born in arguably one of the most religious Countries in the western hemisphere, but having rejected long ago much of the negative baggage of that religion, I cannot help but seeing some of the similarly Disneyesque characteristics I would associate with pictures of St. Peter's Square or the Vatican's gardens.
Everything is so perfect, so neat, so...right. Until one thinks of the human factor involved in achieving such nearly perfect beauty...
All it takes now, for any of us, is to have a dear friend kind enough to push a few buttons and keys on a computer and ...voila' we can all share the great beauty of these temples and artifacts from a land most of us will never get to see.
As grateful as I am to our good and gifted friend, I cannot help thinking of how much faith, love, commitment, exploitation and which unthinkable combinations of all of the above, it took to achieve all of the beauty portrayed in these pictures.
Yes, I am definitely overthinking the whole thing.
So I guess I'll go back to just enjoing the pictures.
Thanks Steve. I am grateful indeed.
Hi Gianni --
You’re not overthinking, not in my opinion anyway. I recall being in a gorgeous cathedral with Dawn, and we wondered if it was really necessary, could the money have been better used elsewhere. That wasn’t overthinking either. Trouble is -- what do you do after you’ve thought of it?
For instance the pyramids of Egypt. All slave labor, right? Entire lifetimes spent pushing around these gargantuan rocks, just to glorify some jerk who thinks he’s God. Hopefully in today’s world it wouldn’t be allowed.
But what’s done is done, both with the pyramids and the Grand Palace. What can you do about it now? You can a) focus on the magnificence, rake in the money, downplay the slave angle, hush it up completely if possible. b) Close down tourism in these places.
Or perhaps c) build a new pyramid - a memorial to the slaves who built the other pyramids. Build a corresponding memorial on the Temple Grounds in Bangkok.
I think we both know that b) and c) aren’t going to happen. Fortunately there’s d) where a sensitive person like yourself speaks out, waking up clueless people, changes the general way of thinking. Sometimes it starts with a lone voice.
So this all leaves one to wonder, is the tragedy that the powers that be allowed this example of greed and power corrupt and materialize, or that even in our current and learned society, we have almost just as much apathy. I would like to think that in todays world something like that wouldn't be allowed as well, but I'm not sure how true that is in the more primitive or still tyrannous contries (Saddam's many palaces are some that come to mind). I propose an alternate choice a. that might focus on the magnificance of the structures, but keep them open to tourism on the grounds that they will educate tourists on the history of these pyramids and the slaves who built them--while raking in money to be put towards the better of what the people of the country's current needs are. Of course, an idea like this is more politically absurd than the original a and b--I even feel like we downplay the slave angle on many things here in America.
The thing I just realized in writing this though, is that the monetary waste in todays world is probably just as excessive as it ever was, possibly more--we've just advanced industrially. Never before has a country had enough resources to feed all of it's people and then still have some left for the rest of the world. Yet we spend billions on the space program, and as a whole, over a billion for this election, and many other things I won't mention. Now I think Americas great, and the space program is really neat, it just seems like the ways and means of competing and using power have changed, not our apathy. I know this is different from slave labor, but I feel like it all ties back into one root cause--greed and apathy. But who's to blame but everyone? It's been embedded into our nature to keep wanting more for ourselves, I'm guilty of it myself. Maybe that's the next step in our industrial or cultural or spiritual evolution--to want and be content with much less...
Anyway, sorry to sidetrack, the pictures are cool too! I just had to get in on this little reflective dialogue.
Thank you for the pictures Steve. They are awesome! I enjoy the dialogue and have had the same thoughts. However, I think the intention of the people at the time was to build for the honor and glory of God or their god whoever they perceive Him to be. Even the slaves probably thought of their work as being a labor of love and obedience.
Now that our society has become so insightful with the age of Social Sciences, and technology, perhaps our ideas of building grandiose structures has been replaced with a feeling of responsibility to our fellow man. If our faith is what we say it is we must look beyond our human weakness and see God in every person we meet. So people become our magnificience. Only now can the whole world be seen in the proper perspective. Building magnificient temples and cathedrals can be replaced with the human touch. Hands on works like feeding the hungry and caring for those less fortunate.
Do you know why they don't celebrate Halloween in India?
They have no "Ghandi"
Why can't warlocks have children?
They have Hallow-weenies!
Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
He didn't have the guts!
So, this little kid was wanted to play with his Dad, who was enjoying reading a magazine and was trying everything to blow the kid off. Frustrated with the child's persistance, he rips out a picture of a map of earth, rips it further into many pieces,and challenges the child to piece it all back together again. To the father's amazement, the child put the father's self-torn puzzle back together with incredible speed. He questions his sons method and he answered "Oh, that was easy. There's a man on the other side of the map. So if you put the man together first, then the world falls into place!"
Theresa's last comment (puzzle story) very profound. Thanks.
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