The other day, I took a stroll down Lat Phrao Road towards the apartment that I lived in when I first moved to Bangkok over seven years ago. The area is very much the same, with the little street market where I used to buy bags of delicious Thai street food to take home, the Family Mart where I would grab a snack or some basic toiletries, and the traffic. But some things have changed. There's a brand-new monorail going up, which would have been so convenient if I still lived there, with a station just outside the place where I used to live.
It was a beautiful sunny day, something of a rarity now that the monsoons are here, and I decided to pass through the Pawana Market and take a walk to Wat Lat Phrao, the neighborhood temple that I only discovered recently despite having lived in the area for three years.
I've been by this temple a few times before, but had never climbed up the narrow staircase to the upper level, where a trio of towering Buddha statues offer blessings and benedictions to the quiet canal-side neighborhood below.
Behind the three statues, I found a sort of prayer hall, every inch of which was filled with statues of the Buddha, each one unique.
Buddhist scholars or art historians would know the difference in meaning of the posture of each statue. I only know that certain postures correspond to certain days of the week, but there is much, much more to Buddhist art than just that.
Even if I didn't know the meaning of the art and statuary in the hall, I still found it beautiful and interesting.
Wat Lat Phrao is a pretty cool temple for not being so well-known. I wish I had discovered it sooner. In fact, I do regret not exploring the city by myself so much for the first five years of my life here, although I was quite busy with work. Now that I'm working online, it has been so great to get a better feel for Bangkok and to get to know the less-known corners of the city.
I decided to explore, and set off on foot deeper into the neighborhood, to an area of my street that I had never seen before. Google Maps had a site marked "Taoist Temple", and I was intrigued.
I followed the map deeper into the twisting sois until I came to a towering pagoda and a tall Chinese-style temple with a swooping tiled roof. This must be the place.
The lines between Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Confucianism are really blurred. These three philosophies, known in China as the "triple teaching", have been blended together into something usually referred to as "Traditional Chinese Religion".
There was even a statue of the Jade Emperor, the Chinese god of heaven who serves as the chief of the Taoist pantheon. Dozens of carvings filled the courtyard and grounds of the temple. It was really ornate, and I am quite surprised that I had no idea this place even existed (despite having lived just a short walk away for so many years).
While the grounds of the temple were impressive, filled with marble statues of various Chinese gods and Buddhist monks, the most impressive feature by far was the towering pagoda, which stood out from the surroundings like a powerful arrow pointing at Heaven.
This was the Pagoda of Guanyin, a holy site dedicated to Chinese Buddhism in Bangkok and consecrated to the goddess Guanyin. In Buddhism, she is seen as an enlightened one. In Chinese religion, Guanyin is seen as an immortal, and the Jesuit missionaries and scholars who worked in China during the Qing Dynasty gave her the moniker "goddess of mercy".
The truth is, though, while I am fairly familiar with Thai-style Theravada (southern) Buddhism, which has its roots in Hinduism, Chinese-style Mahayana Buddhism is still fairly mysterious to me. I wish I knew more what the statues represent, but Chinese Buddhism is more mystical and spiritual than the more practice-based (and older) Theravada Buddhism.
It was wonderful to find somewhere new. It's a good lesson: never stop exploring. Even if you think you know a place, there are still going to be new things to see, do, and learn. My challenge to you is this: find somewhere new in your own hometown or neighborhood! It just might surprise you.
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