Today we broke into the world of guided tours. Up before the sun, we met up with our guide, Kit, who was a monk for 6 years and knows all the ins and outs of Doi Suthep.
Doi, meaning mountain, implies Wat Phrathat is on top of a hill, and it absolutely is. The temple is 15 kilometers from Chiang Mai and is situated at an altitude of 1,073 meters.
Our first stop, however, was at the bottom of the hill, where we learned about the inspired monk, who was tired of climbing the hill, and asked the people to build him a road.
For more than 600 years the temple was on top of Doi Sothep, and without paying a bit of mind to it, people simply climbed the mountain to get to it.
Stairs carved into rock, supplemented with paths and such was enough until this guy said, hey, maybe we could build a road.
I like this guy.
In 1935 he started asking the people of town for money and labor for the project. They thought it was a brilliant idea because it was a long trip to get up there to pray. He was such a great sales man on this project, the people knew they were building a road to the temple, but it became popular belief they were building a road to heaven.
Over 3000 people came to help every day and they finished the whole road in 5 and a half months. By hand.
No tractors, no bulldozers, no dump trucks or graders. Just 3000 people using simple tools. The road is 11 km from the shrine at the bottom to the top. Up a mountain.
Wow.
But there is a better story involved in this whole road situation. Before the road was built, a dog named Rambo used to hang out at the bottom of the hill and guide people to the top. He continued to do that, guiding people up the safe path to the temple until he finally passed away. There is a statue for Rambo at this shrine at the bottom of the hill.
And today, there was a dog sleeping next to the statue of Rambo, and Rambo had a chew toy… and dogs still wander up and down the hill, but now don’t guide people because there are so many cars… but what a great story. I love this story. I can leave Thailand now. I’m done.
I did not leave. I had a mountain to climb.
The original founding of the temple remains a legend and there are a few varied versions. The temple is said to have been founded in 1383 when the first chedi was built.
But as with most things, the legend is the best part of the narrative. Welcome to the ‘white elephant legend.’
White elephant legend
Sumanathera, a monk from the Sukhothai Kingdom had a dream. In the dream he was told to go to Pang Cha and look for a relic.
I don’t usually do what dreams tell me to do because some whacky stuff happens in my mind, but Sumanathera ventured to Pang Cha and found a bone.
Not an ordinary bone, but apparently a relic which not only glowed, but it was able to vanish, to move, and it could replicate itself.
This is the point where I wonder what plants Sumanathera was smoking before bed.
Sumanathera took the relic to King Dhammaraja, who ruled Sukhothai. Dhammaraja was so excited about this magic relic, he made offerings and hosted a ceremony when Sumanathera arrived.
But the bone did nothing special for the King.
Disappointing.
The king agreed, and legend says the king told Sumanathera to keep the bone.
I imagine there were more words involved, and not kind ones, given he threw a party for this magic bone that turned out to be a dud.
King Nu Naone of Lan Na heard of the relic, probably from someone at the party, and asked Sumanathera to bring it to him.
In 1368, Sumanathera asked Dharmmaraja’s permission, to take the relic to King Nu Naone in Lamphun. Since Dharmmaraja had no interest in an old bone, he sent Sumanathera and the bone off on their journey.
Once he arrived, the relic broke into two pieces.
Well, that’s a bummer.
King Nu Naone decided to have the smaller piece of the relic enshrined at Wat Suan Dok. The other piece, for reasons I cannot understand, was placed on the back of a white elephant and the elephant was released into the jungle.
Now I am going to assume people were following the elephant after it wandered into the jungle, because if they were not, we would never know the outcome.
The elephant apparently climbed up Doi Suthep, which at the time was called Doi Aoy Chang, which means ‘sugar elephant mountain.’
So, there were sweet elephants in the area who climbed mountains, which leads me to accept mountain climbing elephants in this story.
Sadly, our famed white elephant carrying the bone, stopped suddenly. Trumpeted 3 times, and dropped dead.
King Nu Naone decided that was an omen, not exhaustion, and ordered the construction of a temple where the elephant dropped.
So new information about temple naming:
‘Wat’ means temple as we know.
‘Phra’ means there is an honorific Buddha image at the temple.
‘That’ means there is a relic at the temple.
So, the name tells us there is a relic of Buddha’s in the sanctity of the Wat. In this case a magic bone, which is believed to be half of Buddha’s shoulder bone. Not sure which shoulder.
Kit our guide told us quite a lot about Buddhism and the symbols during this tour, and I learned a lot. A lot that I thought I was recording for future reference, but really was not, or the recording did not pick up the right voice, or excuses which indicate I did not take good notes and forgot. But that is what the internet is for. I may look into that later.
We made merit at the foot of the hill shrine. First we lit a candle, then incense, then we placed a water lily, a ring of marigold and finally, as part of the offering, and a new twist to my offering experiences, we had a small piece of gold leaf we added to the statue of the monk.
I do remember this part.
Gold is expensive, so many of the Buddha images or monk images are a less expensive metal which is then painted gold. The paint fades over time, and needs repair, so several believers, because they cannot afford a lot of gold, but want to do something to make merit, buy pieces of gold leaf and apply it to the statues.
Kit taught us how to peel off the paper and press it on the statue without making a big mess, losing the gold leaf… it really is easy if you know how, but a disaster if you don’t.
I had so many ideas of where to put my leaf, but in the end I put it on his knuckle because I couldn’t reach his finger.
It is also believed if you decorate images with gold, as we did today, when you are reborn, you will have beautiful healthy skin.
I obviously did not do a lot of gold statue adorning in my previous life, but now I have something to look forward to.
Was it wrong to want to put my gold leaf on the dog statue? I wanted to put a lot of gold leaf on the dog statue.
If you are interested, the road to the top is now paved, 3 lanes wide, 11 km long and takes 20 minutes to get to the top.
Again, thank heaven for road guy and the dogs.
It was still dark when we drove the road to the top and found stairs. I am just saying, 3000 people working, they couldn’t have finished the last bit and made it a 6 month experience instead of a 5 1/2?
they have a lift, so I will stop complaining. It helped that at the top there was a dog, just like there was a dog at the bottom. Just waiting for us to arrive. He watched and made sure we got up the steps okay, then went back to sleep.
Kit had us all set up for this visit. He had all the appropriate gifts for the alter at the bottom of the hill, and he had all the right stuff for at the top.
The monks were up and chanting when we got there, so we wandered around the temple for a while before heading over to the balcony to overlook the city and catch the sunrise.
It was peaceful except for the tourists. It was an average sunrise as sunrises go, but only because there were no clouds to reflect and break up the colors.
But it was nice. To just stand there and do nothing and have nothing expected of you other than to look at the colors change. To be patient and wait for the grand revealing.
Yeah, I had some patience, but not enough. I wandered around and found the moon, still almost full, poking out from behind the lanterns.
They also have a huge Buddha image that was carved from a single teak tree.
After a bit, we were called to gather with the other early morning tourists and Kit gave us trays with pre packaged meals on them.
The monks lined up, and we gave them food. Very basic, except I was instructed not to touch the monk in any way, and only give a meal to every other monk to spread out the goods. take off your shoes, don’t speak, don’t do anything disrespectful. The usual.
After all the food was handed out, the monks lined up and I assume did a chant of prayer or thank you or something, but in my mind, they literally sang for their supper.
After that, it was time to go. We walked down the stairs, and since we had some time, Kit continued his stories about being a monk.
One story he told earlier, was his grandfather, who was an awful grumpy old man disappeared one day, then returned 6 years later to be a happy man. Kit did not recognize him at all, but he was told his grandfather had gone to a monastery and now was happy.
One of the stories from the grandfather was that when they accept the food, they do not pick out the bits that they like and leave the rest for others, they mix all the food together, then eat it. Food is for nourishment, not for pleasure. Pleasure messes with the mind. After Kit had picked foods from a group for a meal, the grandfather mixed all his food together, as a monk would, and when Kit refused to eat it, the grandfather said that is your choice, but it is all you will have.
There is no promise there will be food. There is no promise of variety. Do not be attached to certain things and ignore others or you will starve.
Kit was so hungry the next day he ate the mixed food.
I also learned most male children go through at least 3 months of ‘monk academy,’ where they live and learn with the monks. The kids are told if they do this, their parents are promised a place in heaven. Parents really want the kids to learn to focus and adapt the teachings according to Kit.
If the men learn the ways and follow the teachings, then they have a monk ceremony and are officially monks. Most stop there, but some stay. Kit stayed for 6 years before returning to society.
They also have ‘summer camp’ for kids starting at 7 years. Just like in the states, it is a way for the kids to learn from someone other than family, and for the family to get a break.
When we were headed back to Kit’s car, 3 ‘Rangers’ ran up to the stairs and dropped. They had just finished a run up the hill, apparently and their coach, or seargent, or whatever was praising them, so we dutifully applauded and praised them. They were shooting for 1 hour 20 minutes; they made it in 1 hour 19.
We stopped for coffee near the top and watched as a steady stream of tour busses, cars, small busses, bicycles, walkers and more runners made the way to the top.
It was hard to get up early for this, but I am so glad we did. Get a sunrise tour if you want to experience the temple instead of experiencing tourists. I bet 1000 people were headed to the top while we drank our coffee and watched the doggos play. And that was just the next wave.
We had one more stop on the way down the hill, but we were back at the hotel before the crowds hit, and that… was amazing.
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