Big Buddha

I spent one morning after breakfast at the hilltop Buddhist temple in Pattaya. A friend from the hotel let me ride her scooter through the inner city traffic onto the mountain road. It was just a little bit daunting considering i was wearing an ice cream container for a helmet.

The following are a bunch of photos i took at the temple. Without trying to make it sound like an atypical western spiritual experience, it was extremely peaceful up there, and making the offerings to Buddha, was a nice opportunity to take a step back from all the craziness of the trip and reflect somewhere extremely respectful and calm. In practicing muay thai you do experience a limited amount of Buddhist ceremony, so it was nice to see the grassroots of the religion especially having a local take me up there and show me the ropes.

When you donate at the temple you get a candle, incense and a bunch of flowers. The candle represents enlightenment. The incense when lit consumes you, and surrounds you, you breathe it in, like the teachings, and the flowers, which are usually lilies represent something beautiful growing from the mud and dirt. This is what Buddhist strive to be like. Just a word of advice, don't smell the flowers! I admit i did commit a faux pas! (i hope i used that word correctly!)