What Wat!
Trip Start
Feb 14, 2006
1
12
22
Trip End
May 14, 2006
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Monday, March 27, 2006
I haven't managed to get out of town to explore the surrounding areas of Chiang Mai yet. The weekends are short, and so far there has been enough in Chiang Mai to occupy my interest, mainly the many Wats. Every street (or soi) here seems to have it's own Wat (temple complex). Some are very beautiful, ornate and peaceful spaces to escape to, others are crumbling. Many are being refurbished, some quite badly. I wonder if it would have been better to leave them in their original crumbling state. There is a stunning wooden temple at Wat Phra Singh called Viharn Lai Kam.
I read about a wat out of town, called Wat Umong. At 3pm every Sunday a farang Buddhist monk gives a talk, and there is group meditation, in a pavillion by the lake of this wat. I was interested
Wat
. Yesterday, I got a taxibus out to the Chiang Mai Art Musuem to see an exhibition of local artists showing and intended to walk from there. It didn't seem far, but was actually farther out than I thought. I walked, and walked and eventually asked a street vendor where Wat Umong was. "500m down the road". Every time I asked someone else, same answer. I found myself walking down a country road, after walking about 2k, wondering if I'd ever get there. I felt a bit out of place and unprepared for my unexpected trek: a farang with no hat, no shades (stopped wearing them about a month ago), in blistering midday heat, and a bottle of water in my backpack that would have easily poached a egg if dropped inside. Thankfully I was heading in the right direction and came to Wat Umong, (yeah), at exactly 3pm, (yeah), but, was told the farang monk was in Australia, and there would be no mediation or talk! Well, as Thai people say, "mai pen rai" (it doesn't matter!).
It was worth the trip. Wat Umong is set in a little park, with meandering pathways and very noisy crickets in every tree. It has a lake with huge whiskered fish, that constantly get fed bags of bread by visitors and a huge, imposing, very weathered chedi that sits on a hill above a network of caves. Next to the chedi there is an emaciated black figure of the fasting Buddha, during his years of self-mortification, before he discovered the middle path
Wat - he got the joke too!
. There is a lovely story behind the caves. Supposedly, they were built by a King for a brilliant but very mad monk called Jan. Jan used to go off wandering in the woods, which was his favourite place to be. The King didn't like this, he wanted him to stay inside the Wat and be available whenever he wished his advice. So, being a clever King he built these caves and had them painted with images of trees, flowers, birds and leaves, to replicate the monk's favourite surroundings, hoping to entice him to stay there. You can still see faint images of these paintings inside the caves.
I don't know if the King's ploy worked, or whether Jan disappeared off to the woods anyway. I hope he did!
