Royal Flora Ratchaphruek festival, Doi Suthep

Today while we were in Chiang Mai we saw their most famous site. The Wat Prathat Doi Suthep. Every Temple with a name starting with Wat Prathat contains Buddha relics and therefore is Holy to Buddhists. Its just a little out of town but definitely worth the trip. So we hired a personal driver for the day. It costs about $25/day and he took us everywhere we wanted to go. It's cheaper then renting a car. Our driver brought us up to the temple which was half way up a mountain. How was the spot for this Temple chosen? When the Temple was being planned, about 600 years ago, the Buddha relics were put on the back of an elephant. At the spot where this elephant would stop, the Temple was going to be built. The elephant stopped at the spot where the Temple has been built, which is not the top of the mountain, but roughly just halfway the mountain. When you get there, there were tons of little vendors all around will to sell you lots of stuff (as always). Once you get to the Temple you have to walk up about 300+steps to get to it. The staircase has two huge Nagas, one going up each side. These are closer to cobras than dragons per legend (but they look more like dragons to me). The temple itself is walled in. Once you walk through the walls you will see a few outside buildings. One of the things you will notice, still in the outside area, are the many Temple bells (rakhang in Thai). Ring them if you like, they symbolises a call of the faithful. When entering the holy area you will need to fist take off your shoes. There will be a huge pile indicating when/where you should do this. Once your in the holy area the main thing you will notice is the huge Chedi covered in gold, this contains the Buddhist relics. This generally bell-shaped tower (Chedi) will usually contain a relic of the Buddha, but may also be built to contain the ashes of a king or important monk The Chedi is surrounded by four golden umbrella looking things. They seem to have a function, similar to the "corner stones" that you find around ever Buddhist Temple (Wat) in Thailand. The Wiharn of Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep can be seen in my pictures. Every temple must have a Wiharn. They are a room in which to pray. You see the Buddha Images in there. The large one at the back is especially impressive.
Before you leave the Temple, and before you go back down the stairs make sure to look at the city of Chiang Mai first. There is a wonderful scenic view from up there.

Here is some Temple Etiquette-dress appropriately (no bare shoulders, shorts and skirts should cover your knees), no pointing (especially with your feet-the head is sacred because it is closest to heaven, so likewise the feet are therefore the most unclean. When siting or kneeling in a temple building, make sure the soles of your fee are not facing the alter), stay off the Buddhas, no shoes, no tempting monks (women can not ever hand anything to a monk, if you need to give a monk something place it on the table so they can pick it up).

We took quit a few pictures of this place so make sure you check out the snapfish site to see them all (http://worldtravler.snapfish.com)

Then we went to the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2549 festival. A one-of-a-kind event, a total of 2,500,000 plants, including over 2,200 species of tropical plants and flowers were on display. Why 2549- it is the year here. Its been hard to adjust to. They wright their dates as 4/11/49 (day/month/Buddhist year). Any way this festival is HUGE. We got there late (2pm) and only got to walk through have of it before it ended at 8pm. It's a festival to honor the king (the name is a famous king). This year is was even bigger than normal because it was the current king's 80th birthday. The first section is corporate sponsors who host a there own section to show the people how they are helping the environment. PTT Chemical is the company troy is here working with, and they had a section. The next big part was landscaping demonstrations from around the world. America didn't have one. But there was at least 14 countries there. My favorite section was the Orchid Pavilion. It was the size of a school gym (each section was about a basketball court size). It had every type of orchid I have ever seen and many more. The purple orchid is the Thailand flower. We also went to Bug World so while you are looking at pictures you will notice a few bugs. Most of them were huge. I had to have troy put his hand in one of the pictures, because otherwise you may think I was just zoomed in. But we had butterflies as large as our heads. Other icky bugs also. It finished with a water laser show.

The Sanctury of Truth, Buddha Mountain

This building is completely hand carved wood. The details and craftsmanship is amazing. The idea is that every major religion on Eastern philosophy is represented in this building. There is a section that you can even help do some of the carving. I didn't get a tour so may facts are sparse, for more info go to http://www.sanctuaryoftruth.com/

The second thing we did today was to go see the Buddha Mountain. This is a cliff inlaid with gold leaf in the outline of a sitting Buddha. This is the largest Buddha image in the world. It is 130 meters tall, 70 meters wide, and can be seen from miles away. The image and mountain are alternately referred to as "Buddha Mountain", Khao Chee Chan, or "Phra Phuttha Maha Vachira Utta Mopas Sasada". During the Vietnam Conflict the Thai navy was mining the mountain for stone to be used at an American base. After the war the mountain was illegally mined for stone to be sold to construction companies. When his Majesty put a stop to the mining, he suggested that they create a Buddha image in gold to commemorate the King's Golden Jubilee. American lasers to two days to do the carving itself. But it took months to fill in the carving with gold. The cost of this project was over $3 million. In the park surrounding the cliff there are many areas to meditate and rest. And there are signs there to point you in the most scenic viewpoint. Directly in front of the cliff face are shrines, elaborate gardens, and a number of terraced pools stocked with lotus flowers. Pains have been taken to make Buddha Mountain a quiet, contemplative place.