The Research Assistant

If you’ve been reading this blog or if you know me, you might have thought that I came to Thailand to be a teacher at an international school. You would be wrong. My true calling, it has been decided is to be a research assistant for my close, personal friend, Wandering Dhamma. Also, if you know me, you’d know that my friend at Wandering Dhamma is in fact my wife, Brooke. Lately, we’ve been wandering into a lot of dhamma. Wan phra this, famous master’s birthday that, chat with a monk over here, donate a yellow basket over there, snap a picture, smile, practice Thai, drive and plan. This is the life of a research assistant.

While many of our international friends may stay out late dancing and drinking, and wake about 10 or 11 am for banana pancakes at Smoothie Blues, we wake up so early no place is open for breakfast and taxis are in short supply. The last two weekends have been particularly packed with Buddhist activities. Wan phra, or Buddha Day, which falls every 7-8 days based on the phases of the moon, occurred on Saturday the 19^th of September. We woke at 6am, ate some snacks we had bought from the bakery the night before, and took a songthaew to Wat Pan On. We brought along our sanghathan, a prepackaged donation basket intended for giving to the monks. When we arrived at the temple before the 7am chanting, a nice Thai lady showed us where to place the basket, and then we took a seat. The abbot (head monk) was seated in front of a laptop computer and projector set-up. The chanting for the morning was conveniently projected onto the screen behind him. We were also provided with Thai chanting books. My book was slightly different from Brooke’s, and my Thai reading is like that of a kindergartener, so I struggled to keep on the right page. While Brooke read the chants and followed along nicely, my goal was to listen to the chants, try my best to keep my eyes on the Thai script, and hope through osmosis that my reading skills would improve, all the while saying some phrases now and then from memory. I remembered some phrases from last year’s meditation retreat at Wat Prathat Doi Suthep.

About 2/3 of the way through the chanting cycle, we were shown how to officially offer the food we had brought to the monks. My job as research assistant was to photograph Brooke as she donated. As you can see here, I was a little slow with the shutter, so Brooke has already offered and is returning to her seat.

Brooke retreats after donating the basket

Next, there was a part of the ceremony where the abbot did a specific chant, and followers poured water, very slowly, into a little cup. Brooke whispered that this part of the ceremony makes her have to pee. About an hour after the chanting had begun, it was over. In America, we had gone to wan phra ceremonies where the laypeople then stuck around for breakfast, but here everyone simply went home. We found food at my new favorite breakfast place, Dada Kafe.

Later that day, we went to Wat Srisuphan, the Silver Temple, for the evening service. Brooke instructed me to “check out how those people give the flowers to the Ganesh statue.” I watched, and told her what I saw, but we did not have the courage to emulate. We will try another time. After watching some more folks light candles and donate flowers, we went into the temple. I had not been feeling well during midday, so this was a shortened activity. In the morning we had been quite comfortably seated in chairs, but this evening we kneeled on the floor. Something didn’t quite agree with my stomach (it was hot, I was dizzy) so after about 15 minutes I told the wanderer that we should leave. We then walked the Saturday Walking Street and found some food, and I recovered fairly well. I joked that all the Buddhism had done a number on me. Some assistant I am.

The bot at Wat Srisuphan

We went home early so that we could wake for our early appointment at Wat Chom Tong. We were going to meet our Filipina restaurant owner friend, Annie, and her husband Nui, at 5:30am, and then drive about 45 minutes to Chom Tong for Ajahn Tong’s birthday. You can read all about this day over at Wandering Dhamma. I was not a good research assistant, as I allowed the battery to die on Brooke’s camera and did not bring mine as backup. Now I need to follow up with Annie and Nui to get some of the photos they took.

Fast forward to this weekend: Buddhist immersion round two. This time wan phra was on Sunday, and we decided to go to Wat Umong, a forest temple right near the city of Chiang Mai. It was raining at 6:30am , so rather than walk the few kilometers as originally planned, we took our car. We arrived at the wat around 6:40, so we walked the grounds looking for the chanting. We thought it would start at 7 as it had at Wat Pan On, but at 7 the monks were still filtering into the temple from their almsrounds, baskets brimming with donations, even in the rain. We wandered the grounds, explored the tunnels in the early-morning, rain-soaked gloom, bought a book for 10 baht from a little hut, perused some rather odd buildings, and tried to discern where the morning chanting would be. We happened upon some Thais with food, and we followed their trail. They led us to a newer looking building, open on all four sides, where several other Buddhists were gathered. We entered, noticed some seats, and sat in them. An older Thai gentleman approached us, and in the usual, touch-feely way of many Thai men, took my hands into his and welcomed us warmly in English. He asked us a few questions about our home country and how long we’ve been in Thailand, and told us the monks would come out soon. They did, along with a pesky dog, whom the abbot chased away much to everyone’s amusement.

Monks at Wat Umong

This research assistant noted that the ceremony here was different from Wat Pan On in several ways. Here, a Thai layman had a microphone and led much of the chanting. The abbot still chanted, as did the rest of the monks, but there seemed to be more “call and response” type chanting. There was no fancy technological setup, and chanting books were not available for us. The ceremony lasted roughly 40 minutes, and then the monks gathered on the floor to eat their donations, while the crowd dispersed. Brooke and I had breakfast just outside the temple grounds for roughly $3, then went to the International Meditation Centre. We found the monk we were seeking, and then sat with him in the meditation hall to receive an introductory talk about the methods taught here. You can read Brooke’s take on this at Wandering Dhamma. I took some pictures of the day, and the battery survived, but the gloomy weather made for some rather grainy, unstable images.  To be a better assistant, I need to sharpen my digital photography skills, improve my Thai, and continue practicing mindfulness so we don’t miss out documenting the important happenings.