052 – Wat Phra Singh

The Phra Buddha Sihing, which gives the temple its name is the principal Buddha statue. According to legend, the image was based on the lion of Shakya, which used to be housed in the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya in India. The Phra Buddha Sihing statue apparently had a long journey to get here, from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), a few stops before eventually landing in Ayutthaya and then on to Chiang Mai.

A surprisingly uninspiring legend, if you ask me. No drama, no intrigue. No pointless fact to make the story interesting. What a drag.

Allegedly, the head of the statue was stolen in 1922. No one knows for sure if the present day head is the real one or a replica.

Now that was more interesting. However, I think in 1922 someone might have documented or at least noticed the head missing and ordered a replacement head. But perhaps not.

Every year, during the Songkran festival, the statue is taken from it’s home and carried through the streets of Chiang Mai in a religious parade, during which the spectators honor the statue by sprinkling water over it.

I bet someone dropped it in 1922 and cracked it’s skull, but didn’t want to own up to the cracking, so quietly replaced the head. That would be a good legend. I bet that monk was demoted. Fictional monk in a fictional story, of course. Don’t want the internet to be burdened down with misinformation.

Construction on Wat Phra Singh began in 1345 when King Phayu, the fifth king of the Mangrai dynasty, had a chedi built to house the ashes of his father King Kham Fu. A viharn and several other buildings were added a few years later and the resulting complex was named Wat Lichiang Phra.
In 1367, the statue of Phra Buddha Singh was brought to the temple, and the temple complex received its present name.
In 1925, the temple underwent a restoration, and at that time 3 funerary urns were found inside a small chedi. Apparently they assumed the ashes were royal, and in the 100 years since they were found and declared royal, the ashes were lost.

I bet it was the monk who dropped the image and cracked it’s head. Same time frame, you know. Maybe they hid the ashes in the new head.

1578 to 1774 the Burmese ruled the Lanna people. During this time, the temple was abandoned and fell into ‘serious disrepair.’

I bet it did. I know they built things better back in the day, but things are bound to fall apart over a couple hundred years.

King Kawila assumed the throne as King of Chiang Mai in 1782. He took on the temple as a project and had the ubosot built and the chedi enlarged. His successors restored the Wihan Lai Kham and the Ho Trai.

That was a new one to me. Ho Trai is a Temple Library. Wihan is throne room literally, but I think it is the Viharn.

In the 1920s, the whole temple complex underwent extensive renovations under the leadership of monk Khru Ba Srivichai.

And we are back to the missing, not missing head and the misplaced royal ashes. The roaring 20’s was a rough time for this temple, even with the renovation.

Sadly that is my knowledge of the history of the temple. It is very nice, and very welcoming. It also is one of the larger and more lavish that I have seen in the area.
We did not find the answer to the head issue, nor any ashes other than the ones in the incense burners, so I was unable to Nancy Drew the history issues of this temple. I will refer the issue to NCIS or the equivalent Thai department.

When we were wandering around today, we discovered banks were closed and had no idea why. It was a Wednesday, after all.
So, we let it go until we were out wandering around and visited Wat Phra Singh to discover today was Makha Bucha Day, which was a Buddhist religious holiday I wanted to observe while I was here. Mostly because it was the only festival listed on the internet that was to take place during my visit.
When in Rome and such miscellaneous words.

Makha Bucha Day (or Māgha Pūjā) celebrated on the full moon day of the third lunar month and is the second most important Buddhist festival after Vesak.

No, I don’t know what Vesak is. You can research if you are interested.  

Makha Bucha celebrates a gathering that was held between Buddha and 1,250 of his disciples. It is said that the ‘enlightened monks’ gathered spontaneously, without prior knowledge or invitation from anyone, to hear the Buddha’s teachings.
So, on this day, Buddhists celebrate the creation of exemplary community.

That is a gross oversimplification of the meaning of the day, but it is not inaccurate.

So what that means in todays world, is that it is a national holiday in Thailand (which is why the banks and such were closed) and it is a time when the Buddhist monks to go temples and perform merit-making activities, like meditation, teachings and alms giving.

Needless to say, the temple was crowded. It was also very welcoming to everyone, not just the faithful.
They were preparing for a ceremony when we arrived, and people were crowding into the hall to listen and participate.
We did not participate in the ceremony, but we did wander around and watch other people do things. There were several places for merit to be offered. We bought flowers, incense and candles, which we dutifully lit and placed clumsily in appropriate places.
Several people were walking around the building 3 times. Don’t know why other than odd numbers are lucky, but it was part of the holiday. As proper tourists, we stood there and gaped at them instead of following the parade. I was respectful and did not take pictures of the walking. Everything else, yes, but not the walking.

There were several places to give merit here, so we went to one of the back buildings, found a monk, and I got my first blessing.
For that, you pay 20 THB or more and then kneel. The monk chants and shakes water on your head.
After that, you get a woven bracelet that you leave on for 3 days or until it falls off.

This building also had a green buddha. It was kind of a side Buddha, not the feature act.

The other thing this building had was a lot of monks. I did not want to enter because it appeared they were all in deep meditation as part of the festivities.

MJ rolled her eyes and informed me they were wax.

Damn good wax from a distance. Wonder how they keep them from melting in the hot season. I might be convinced they are not wax, but preserved. From outside the door, they stare into your soul. I think that was the point.

For something I wanted to see while I was here, I really had no idea what was going on despite the research I did about the event.
I would liken it to explaining Easter to an unsuspecting atheist. The initial idea is sound and easy to grasp, but why there are bunnies and eggs and baskets everywhere just complicates and confuses the unfaithful. I would argue it confuses the devoted, too, but it is what it is. Jesus ascended into heaven amidst pastel eggs and giant bunnies walking on 2 legs carrying baskets. Makes perfect sense.
Or as much sense as the surface of this celebration did to me. Just goes to prove you can learn things, very factual and real things and still have no comprehension of what they mean.