Notes from Ayutthaya Thailand
After a long flight, we made it to Bangkok, Thailand, where we are staying with a friend I haven’t seen since college. She has been an absolutely amazing host and helped us see so much in our time here. Our first stop was the ancient city of Ayutthaya. I am somewhat obsessed with seeing UNESCO World Heritage Sites (and I live just a short walk away from one!) so starting here made me giddy to check another site off the list.
Ayutthaya dates back to 1351, which means the buildings we saw were actually younger than places like the Tower of London, but earthquakes and a Burmese takeover that burned the town to the ground really didn’t help preserve things. As a result, there are many headless buddha figures found here – hundreds, if not more.
The different sites here are spread all over the town, so after walking through a few that are right across the street from each other, we bought some postcards of things that looked interesting so we could communicate to the driver where we wanted to go. It worked a charm, and we were able to see different areas of the city, from old and unrestored to shiny and new.
One of my favourite aspects of going to places like temples and shrines is looking at the objects that are part of the rituals. Candles, flowers, offerings – there is a personality to what is left at each monument. Here it was basic and often worn, but beautiful in its balance.
Rubbing gold leaf on a buddha helps build good karma, as you’re helping to keep the monument at its best, as we were told. I love that making things glittery is seen as a way to do good!
One thing I never imagined I would see: monks with mobile phones. And they posed for pictures with each other, as these monks were visiting from another area of the country. They had an amazing way of being happy and something I would describe as excited but in this completely calm way.
Heck, I was jumping up and down and clapping my hands just to have such a pretty blue sky as a backdrop to the pictures. Calm excitement? Clearly not in my nature.
xlovesx
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