Making Merit

This weekend I hung out with my Thai friend Tuktun, who was visiting Bangkok from her home in Chachaengsao, about 1.5 hours away by train. She insisted that my school year couldn't get off to an auspicious start without visiting a temple to make merit, so this weekend she took me to Wat Rakhang near the Chao Phraya waterfront.

Me with the rakhang. Despite the construction, still a cool experience.

Wat Rakhang, roughly "The Temple of the Bell" in English, is a meditation temple built to house a large rakhang, or prayer bell from the Ayutthaya period. Outside the main wat building, my friend took me to the shaded outdoor area where barefoot merit-makers were kneeling in pray. Tuktun showed me how to hold three sticks of incense, one small, waxy, yellow candle, and a large lotus blossom between my hands in a wai. I struggled lighting the candle, but she assured me it was ok to just stand it on a raised table with the others, some burning, some smoking, and some unlit like mine.

Next, she took me to another outside area where seven metal lotus-shaped bowls, set in a trough of oil, were burning with smoky orange flames. Above each lantern was a small Buddha, one for each day of the week. Using a metal ladle, we scooped some oil from the trough and slowly poured it into each of the seven bowls, moving counter-clockwise three times around the flames. She told me to pay special attention to the Monday bowl, as that Buddha is "my Buddha" (I was born on a Monday).

a mural depicting a scene from Thai history

We took off our shoes and entered the main temple building. The inside was beautifully painted in darkly colored fresco murals that glittered with gold-leaf highlights in the dim candlelight. While Tuktun prayed, I watched a young monk who was celebrating his ordination with his family and friends. The saffron-robbed, shaven-headed novice sat serenely on a raised platform to the left side of the temple, while family knelt on the ground in front of him smiling for photos and presenting offerings of new robes, medical supplies, and toiletries to the temple for the monks.

Every young Buddhist man in Thailand is expected to be ordained into the monkhood at some point in his life before he turns twenty-one years old. The ordination typically lasts for a few weeks, and is a right of passage for many Thai men. There are some famous old photos of King Bhumibohl kneeling in his orange robes wearing his trademark dark sunglasses. 

a chedi (structural spire) at Wat Rakhang

Sometimes Thai boys ordain for a short period of time during mourning, as was the case for one of my students who told me that he became a monk for a short time during the school holiday following the passing of his mother. Those without a reason to enter the monkhood earlier must do it around their twenty-first birthday.

feeding the fish

After she finished her prayers, Tuktun and I purchased a loaf of bread from an elderly white-robed nun. Wat Rakhang sits on the banks of the Chao Phraya, and people like to come here to feed the hundreds of fish that splash around near the shores. The temple takes 20 baht donations for a loaf of bread that you can use to feed the fish. Since all life is sacred in Buddhism, this is seen as a way to make merit too, but the families there with their young kids just seemed to be having fun.

at the Chao Phraya River

Wat Rakhang wasn't simple to get to. We had to take a minibus through Chinatown and out to the western part of the city where I've rarely been, and then switch to a taxi for the remainder of the way. The train from Chachaengsao arrived at Hua Lampong Station at 8:30, so we got an early start to the day. After visiting the temple and feeding the fish, it was still too early for lunch, so we took the Chao Phraya express ferryboat across the river for 3 baht apiece.

Rama IX Bridge on the Chao Phraya River

We wanted to visit Wat Prah Keaw, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha at the Grand Palace; the plan didn't turn out too well, but we still had a fun day (and learned a few lessons for any tourists). More on that next time.