Monday's Journey . . .

I spent much of the day exploring Buddhism and the Thai culture . . . Auom and Kat have been great friends and guides . . .

Buddhism is everywhere here . . . the entire culture is actually wrapped around Buddhism

This first picture is of the first temple we went to . . . it's the oldest and largest temple in province and it's located in downtown Chiangmai . . . it was built 700 years ago!

We then went to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep ( it's high on a mountain about 15 kilometers from Chiangmai and it is a very sacred spot for tourists. It's amazing all the buddhas here and how the people pay homage. The next pictures are of some of the altars in the Temple . . . it is huge . . .

The last of these pics shows a young buddhist ringing some bells as part of worship hoping that it will bring them more good fortune . . .

The last picture on the post shows my two Buddhist Monk friends -- Suriya (from Burma) and Gorn (from Chiangmai) -- they spoke pretty good English and were gracious enough to spend an hour and a half with me talking about the Buddhist faith . . .

Very interesting -- Buddhism is much about us making ourselves one with everything and overcoming suffering through following the 8 footpaths of a good life . . .

They even asked me some questions about Christianity . . . I told them I would pray for them and I think they said they would do the same for me . . .

Your Kingdom come . . .