The pet hospital where my girlfriend works has recently bought a new MRI machine. In true Thai Buddhist fashion, the owners have arranged a blessing ceremony to, for lack of a better word, christen the machine.
This isn't an uncommon event. New condos, hotels and shopping malls, and even new runways, and air control towers are all blessed by Buddhist monks before their grand openings. This is the first time that I've gotten to attend this particular ceremony, though it reminded me a lot of the School's Birthday ceremony which I used to attend.
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| making merit |
First, the monks were fed a breakfast and coffee by the owners of the hospital. While they were eating, Pinky and I had a coffee from a nearby cafe. Presently, one of the assistants came by and handed us a tray loaded with flower garlands. We were to raise the silver tray above our heads and make a wish. This tray was then presented to the monks.
Soon, it was time for the ceremony to begin. The doctors, assistants, and I knelt on bamboo mats in front of the monks, who lit candles and incense, and passed a spool of white string between them. Holding the string between their hands in a wai, each monk was linked with his brothers. They began chanting.
The ceremony lasted around twenty minutes while the monks chanted their prayers and blessings from the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism.
It's these moments from Thailand that I'll never forget; the small moments when I, as an outsider, am welcomed into the culture and given a place in local life that a tourist wouldn't have. Though my legs fell asleep and my back hurt something terrible from the rigid meditation post we all had taken, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
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