One of the very interesting events at Loi Kratong River Fest was the exhibition of the casting of a new golden Buddha image in front of Wat Arun (The Temple of the Dawn). While my friends and were making the circuit between the participating temples, we were drawn to the crowd and colorful flames outside Wat Arun. We got there just in time to see the craftsmen pouring the molten gold into a mould.
Though we didn't get to participate in the creation of this statue, it really was a community event. While the gold was being poured, monks chanted blessings over a white string that ran through the crowd and connected to the mould. Afterwards, the crowd cut the string into pieces and passed them around. I got a small section of the blessed string.
There was to be another Buddha image cast the next night, and all of the people visiting the temple at this time got to participate in some small way in the creation of this second statue. The wax model, which would be used for the creation of the mould, sat on the ground, and anyone was welcome to come forward and either add a coat of molten wax with a paintbrush, or remove some wax with a file. The image, created by hundreds of hands, will be imperfect. I suppose this has some sort of symbolic meaning, but at the present I'm too tired to try to work that one out!
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