Other pics |
The Marble Temple |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|
|
Copyright © 1996 Maren Nakazato LaFreniere - All Rights Reserved |
Wat Benchamabophit is renown as the Marble Temple by tourists.
The walls draped in the cool white of European marble, the glittering roofs dressed in gold dragon scales and the fluid serenity of the Buddha within seem out of time in the bustling noise of Bangkok. It's an intriguing mixture of commercial and spiritual, European and Asian. Fiftythree Buddhas arc in a semicircle in the back courtyard, none of them the plump Buddha I knew from downright. In fact a couple of them were beyond anorexic. And yet coin-operated fortunetellers spit out paper futures in the side courtyard, one machine for each day of the week. A monk inside sells film and postcards while worshippers not only kneel but lay before a great golden Buddha in a room lit by stainglass windows. The room is hushed except for the murmuring of prayers and the clicking of cameras.
Rie and I had not originally planned to go there but I'm glad I went. The architecture is not to be missed. That day was the setting for another misadventure, this one with a tuk-tuk driver and sapphires you can buy at a bargain. When I find the story I wrote, I'll put it up as another misadventure to match the ferryboard incident described on the Buddha page. Just a warning--be careful of jewels on sale that a stranger on the street tells you about and if three people that you meet apparently by chance tell you a mule is a horse, the mule is still a mule. |
