Over 90% of Thai citizens are Therevada Buddhist, and signs of the historic importance of Buddhism are everywhere.
A Buddhist temple is known as a Wat, with countless small and large Wats within easy walking distance of where we are staying near Bangkok's Chinatown. Since I can't upload photos right now, here are other folks' images of important Wats nearby, many of which feature astounding gilded images of the Buddha.
Wat Po features the image of a reclining Buddha, 46 meters long and 15m high, illustrating the passing of the Buddha into Nirvana.
David's massage school is connected with this Wat; the Wat Po Thai Massage School. Massages begin first with a prayer before moving to the activation of sen lines, similar to acupuncture points, throughout the body.
While David is in class during the day, I have been walking and touring. I sat for a great while in the main meditation hall of Wat Suthat and felt the power envisioned by those who created this tranquil, serene 8m high Phra Si Sakayamuni Buddha.
As I was present in this Wat, which was not overrun by tourists, many people (who I assumed to be local) entered the temple, kneeled, brought their pressed hands to their head and chest, prostrated themselves to the floor, and sat for awhile. Over half concluded their time in the Wat by pressing a few Thai Bhat into one of a dozen wooden boxes with holes just for receiving money. Each box had a different inscription.
All of these experiences leave me wondering about the spectrum of what Buddhism truly means for those in this country, and in particular about the relationship between a person and the Buddha. My understanding about Western Buddhism as taught by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche minimizes the veneration aspects, the prayer requests to the Buddha, and focuses on the invididual's personal meditation work.
http://www.boulder.shambhala.org/ourlineage.php
Some other observations about Buddhist life in Bangkok: monks in brightly colored orange robes are everywhere! Not only in the Wats and monastaries, but shopping in the ubiquitous street markets, taking river ferrys, buying fresh fruit drinks made as you watch... anything that lay Bangkokians are up to.
I haven't witnessed the morning processions depicted in this photo, when monks go from door to door collecting donations that fund their daily sustenance. However, you can see the wide age range of monks, from elderly men to young boys. And how about this: all Thai men -- including the Kings -- are expected to serve as a monk at some point during their lives.
With this expectation in mind, it is not surprising that I saw on the Dhamma Meditation Channel, Buddhist religious programming in which cute anitmated characters sang to a pop-rock beat about how non-ordained people could help monks by giving them rice and other proscribed foods. These are the foods you can give a monk.... (sung in Thai).
Finally, in what raises the question, "Why go around the world to experience something in your neighborhood?" back in Denver, David and I live within easy walking distance of a Thai Buddhist Temple,
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Wat Buddhawararam. When we walk around Rocky Mountain Lake near our house, orange-robed monks are occasionally making the same route.
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