Chiang Mai (Thailand)

March 07, 2021

Chiang Mai (Thailand)

From my diary (October 2007)

To mark the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, my university in Brunei has a four-day-long holiday. Having partaken of the Eid celebrations the year before, I decide to return to Thailand, but this time to the North, to the city of Chiang Mai. On the Thursday afternoon, after my classes, I board my plane for Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok. The flight takes almost three hours, which I spend in the company of a friendly Pakistani sitting beside me, a computer programmer who lives and works in Brunei.

Transiting in the capital’s airport, I arrive at Chiang Mai before eight that evening. I get a taxi to the small guesthouse in the old town recommended by my guidebook, only to find there are no vacancies. However, in the area are plenty of other small hotels and I find an alternative right away, next door.

The following morning begins my discovery of the city. The list of recommended temples is long and the city – even just the old part of the city, surrounded by the ancient moat and a few short stretches of the walls – is quite big.

At the first temple I visit, Wat Chiang Man, which is the oldest in town (built in 1297), I see a little blonde girl from the West kneeling before the Buddha…and crossing herself! How charming, the spontaneity of children. After all, what does it matter whether before the Buddha, Christ, or any other sacred figure one does a wâi (the typical Thai greeting with palms together), a prostration, or the sign of the cross? I wish the minds of us adults, too, were this open.

To one side of the courtyard where the temple stands, I see a group of children playing tàkrâw, a popular sport all across Southeast Asia. A cross between volleyball and football, it demands players get the ball over the central net and to the other side without touching it with their hands. Impressive.

At the third temple I visit, Wat Chedi Luang, I come upon a young man, his head shaved, who tells me he has just spent a week in temporary ordination, as a monk in a Buddhist temple. He owns a tourist agency in Phuket, in the south of the country, and in keeping with Thai tradition he took on monk’s robes for a week to ‘purify’ himself or, more precisely, to gain merits through kusalakamma (‘wholesome acts’). In my view, this practice of temporary ordination – which can encourage reflection and self-scrutiny – contributes to the ethical and moral compass of many.

Another way to augment one’s ‘basket of merits’ through kusalakamma is by offering money to the ladies sitting with small caged birds in front of many of the temples. For a few coins, they allow you to free a bird from its cage...