Wednesday, June 03, 2009

 

Buddha in the cave. May 11th.

Monday May 11th.

Once we were over the bridge we continued on the road to Phang Nga (Pang Nar) which we have taken before; both for visits to James Bond Island and also further north to Chumphon, where Mam's parents live.
We have seen signs to various places of interest along the route but chose to visit the Buddha in the cave on Jamie's recommendation.

https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2009/02/wat-sawan-kuha-temple-phang-nga.html

We were using Jamie's blog as he intends - for visitors to explore away from the resorts.

This site of interest does attract some tourists and there are some stalls selling foods and drinks, including food for the monkeys that have a colony there.

There are many Buddha statues to be seen in Thailand - more on this blog later; and each community has its temple.


The large statue of the reclining Buddha was built in a large cave.
We paid our 20 Baht (about 40p) and explored the statue and side statues and beyond into the cave system.








I don't know if this would be called an altar. Altars contain images of one of many holy men from the past who have been deemed to have achieved the highest level of existence with the Buddha.
One may pray to any of the holy men. One can place joss sticks and candles and flowers and cover statues with small pieces of gold leaf. Food and drink is also left. Some of this I find slightly disturbing - bottles of Fanta don't seem to fit the holy image.



There was a path and steps within the cave system and we were free to walk around. There was no guide or thoughts of health and safety. People take responsibilities for themselves in Thailand.





Jamie had also been amused by the pointlessness of this sign. You will need to click on it to see the larger image and then back arrow back to the main blog.


The scavenging monkeys were, of course, very good to look at.






Monkeys were not the only animals. At every temple there are roaming dogs. The monks would not dream of hurting them, but many are not looking completely healthy



Temples in Thailand - at least the part we have seen, are very similar on first glance.
Probably a visitor might think that about all our churches.
But of course we know that every church has its own history and own individuality - and the temples of Thailand also have their own distinct features. Jamie aims to blog every temple on Phuket.





The leelawadee flowers were on the ground beneath the trees and I chose to place them in this closed window image.


Tomorrow I will have pictures of Raman waterfall area - up in the jungly hills.

Buddha in the cave. May 11th.
posted by Grandma P on Wednesday, June 03, 2009