Thailand Temples – November 2015 (1 of 5)
I was incredibly fortunate to be able to join an amazing Strabo Tours trip to Thailand led by Kathy Adams Clark.
Thailand is a magical place filled with beauty, delicious food and wonderful people. We were briefed on the customs and learned more along the way from our Thai guides, Ms. Kei in Bangkok and Peo in Chiang Mai. Speak softly, dress appropriately in the temples, and don’t point your feet at anyone, especially buddhas.
Temples are the main attraction throughout Thailand. There are over 40,000 Buddhist temples (wats in Thai) in the country. Some have been restored and many are still in ruins. All are beautiful and fascinating to walk through. Many of the restored temples have elaborate landscaping with flowers and plants from all over the world.
Statues of Buddha stand throughout each temple, many in row after row, some out in the open and others in their own buildings. The facial expressions and hand positions all have significance in the Thai beliefs.
In addition to burning incense and leaving lotus flowers, another way that Thai Buddhists make offerings to Buddha is to affix a small square of gold leaf onto a statue or other sacred object.
4 Responses
Amazingly beautifully captured and composed photos. Now I know how I should have taken these photos myself. I should have followed Patti more closely during the trip and take photos in the same spots as her. I may then end up having some exceptional photos myself.
Thank you so much Harold. I’m sure you do have many exceptional photos and I hope I will see them.
Love this, Patti. The temple bells in the beginning are lovely. Love #1 in the second series with the black background. That is so neat. The HDR of the temple in the same series looks like an advertising poster.
The big face of the reclining Buddha is fantastic. Love that.
All the shots are great. Enjoyed the words, too. So smooth and mellow.
Thanks much. I appreciate the feedback. Those bells were fascinating to me. I kept seeing them in silhouette and then in the sun and I had to find a way to capture what I was seeing. That black background is a result of underexposing and also tweaking the black and shadow sliders to hide a bunch of distracting stuff in the background. That shot was all about those little wax pots and fire.
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