Temples and such

So while in Bangkok I visited a couple of amazing temples. The first one was Wat Phra Kaew ("wat" means temple), which is in the same vicinity as the Grand Palace grounds, seen to the left.

This area is considered the Vatican City of Thai Buddhism. It's a place where many Thais make pilgrimages to in order to view the Buddhas, take massage courses, and for spiritual reasons as well.

I'll be honest with you...as I was walking around a lot of it looked very similar, but it was all beautiful...like the stereotypical images you see on tv...but much more impressive in person. Here are some more pictures of the Palace area.











































Directly above you can see a people praying and offering gifts the Buddha. They were bringing food out, burning incense...very interesting stuff. It's hard to know what exactly is going on...but this is my best guess.


Inside Wat Phra Kaew is the Emerald Buddha. It sits above a shrine in the mail chapel, and is actually made of jasper. It has a rich history of being moved all around Thailand and even Laos seized it, but it was later recaptured by the Thais. We weren't allowed to take pictures of it, but I tried snapping a shot...the buddha is up top.


Here is a better stock photo:

When entering this temple everyone had to remove their shoes and as the sign says, you cannot point your feet at the Buddha. This is considered very disrespectful as the Thais consider feet to very dirty. It is also very bad to step over someone who is sitting down or to put your feet up on a chair.

Another interesting taboo is head touching. The Thai friends I've made think it is very funny that I let them touch my head.

Okay, I'm getting a little blogged-out, but here's the coolest thing I saw when visiting these temples. Wat Pho has a giant,golden Buddha that is 46m long and 15m high. It's called the Reclinging Buddha and represents the passing of the Buddha into final nirvana.

Here are it's feet!

BIG BUDDHA!!!