More on December 30th

We just visited a few Wats in Chiang Mai and it was so interesting! The first one we went to is the most popular in Chiang Mai. There were people, monks and even shops everywhere. There were streams of money flowing down everywhere inside - so much it wasn't easy to see things. After we walked out and around for a while, we heard singing and went back in to see. There were a bunch of monks over to he side while one was singing.

We then went to another, less popular Wat. It was made of all teak and was quite gorgeous inside and out.

We last went to a wat that used to be the tallest building in Old Chiang Mai. It's not as tall anymore, likely due to fire or war, but is still quite impresive. The active temple in frong and some around the back ha what looked like really old monks meditating, but many were in glass cases. We thought they were wax, butthey looked so real! (In talking to a friend of mine who was a monk in Thailand years ago, he explained that they believe in Buddhism that when you die during your heavy meditative state that these older monks achieve, the body does not disintegrate when they die. He said this is one of the reasons that they put them out like this. However, he is not sure if they use some sort of chemicals on the body to keep it from decaying - he said the Buddhists in the temples would not admit to doing this, but he's not sure.) On the way back around, we heard monks chanting and when we went back in, it had beentransformed from very bare to many, many monks kneeling and chanting - it was beautiful and awesome! I just loved sitting in there and hearing their beautiful voices. I can see where that could really help one to meditate. I have so many quesitons now about the Buddhist religion We tried to find a monk to talk to at a monk talk at one of the wats where you can ask them lots of questions, but were perhaps looking on a wrong day. What a great experience to even get to see this different way of life.