Thailand. The official opening of a temple.

Yesterday, Noot informed that after I had finished teaching I had to make my way out to the village as there was a special ceremony happening at the temple. Noot had gone out to the village with her sister Joom around lunch time. So at 7pm when I had finished my last class for a Saturday I drove the 20 kilometres to the village.

I don’t get to the village a lot; the last time I was there was for Jack and Joom’s wedding. I actually stopped one other time on the way to Khong Chiam in the last 9 to 10 weeks. The road that leads to the village (sign posted 212) is also the main road going to Mukdahan; Mukdahan is on the Mekong River and across the Mekong on the other side is Lao and the city of Savannakhet. There you can visit the Thai embassy and apply for any of the visas you may need.

I was shocked when I got on road 212 and found road works going on. They are going to make the two lanes into 4 lanes which is a great idea. The current 2 lane road is very bad; the shoulder of the old road where motorbikes try to ride was disgraceful; motorbikes would ride out on the road where cars, buses and trucks are doing 100 kilometres plus and they are doing 30-60 Km’s and hour, this is a dangerous mix. So when it is completed in the next, who knows when, will be great for all people along the road and traveling it.

I arrived at the village and made my way to the temple. I met Noot and her mum at the temple entrance.








Of course Mae and her friends wanted their picture taken together. They are volunteer guards, to keep the piece and stop any trouble. I think if any trouble was caused it would be by them!


The local villagers were set-up in the village grounds offering food to the visitors, it was provided for free by the temple. This is “Kow Jee” being made and is a sticky rice patty dipped in an egg sauce. The lady making them is very happy as most Isaan people are.

Here the rice patties are being grilled over coals; there were plenty of young hungry kids lined up waiting for them to come off the grill.







And some more locals, who were serving soup and this was appreciated as it was a cool night.





One of the things that caught my eye straight away was all the windows of the temple had these colourful spider like webs covering them in the Thai national colours and a few extra colours as well. I stood there for a good minute looking at the web until Noot told me go with her.



I got to the front of the temple and was met by a sea of people all dressed in white. There were white strings running all over the place and down to where people where seated on straw mats. There were kids, teenagers, middle aged and elders seated on the ground.

As far as I could see there were people dressed in white. If I guessed the number, it would be around 800-1,000 people there. I asked Noot “What is going on?” She said “It’s the official opening of the temple.”

I thought that had already happened. The temple has been being used for such a long time now; it hadn’t passed my mind that it hadn’t been officially opened. Why had all these people from villagers all over the place come to the opening? I wasn’t sure other than other to make merit and this will benefit them later in life.

Some monks were tying prayer strings off the main lines to where people could sit. This is done so that people all receive the benefit or merit when they chant, prayer or recite the Buddhist mantras. This must have taken some time to set-up and organize.


I spotted some elderly ladies; I asked permission to take their picture which they happily agreed.


This is a picture of one of our local elders. She is the loveliest lady; she brings up her daughter’s son who is working in Korea with her husband. She has always been so polite and really funny to talk too.

As I said there were plenty of kids and teenagers there. Benjawan and her friends were there to help open the temple. They would be there the entire night. The chanting, reciting or praying of Buddha’s mantras would go all through the night until early the next morning.

I loved these spider webs. They were everywhere and the picture doesn’t do this one justice. If you click and enlarge the picture you will actually see a spider in the middle of the web.

Inside the temple these webs were very colourful and set-up everywhere. They were used to make walls and these made little rooms. Noot cannot tell me why this was done as she doesn’t know why. People would enter the temple and go into these little areas. Why? I am sorry, I am not sure; maybe a reader will know more.

This is a closer view of these spider web rooms.


The temple was also full of people dressed in white I think that “lay people” dress in white as the orange robes are for ordained monks. I am again not sure this is 100% the reason but again maybe a reader can help me there.

There were a lot of monks at the temple, I had seen at least 50 and I wasn’t sure how many were already inside the temple. Here some more monks are making there way into the temple.





There were Budda images set-up at the entrance to the temple. People could make merit by praying before the statues.




People had come to make merit. Here a man lights his incense sticks from a candle.


Here a mother and daughter are making merit.


Noot, was going to make merit. She donated 100 baht; it was up to you how much you wanted to donate. She got a candle, 3 incense sticks, gold leaf and some flowers. Noot lit her candle and then she lit her incense sticks off her candle.

She then says a prayer, places her incense sticks in the pot and her flowers on the pile.






Last of all, she adds her specs of gold leaf to the dragon like creation that jutted out.








After this was done we headed off. We were walking back to Mae’s house; Noot said that a girl who went missing a long time ago was back. Elle disappeared about 16 months ago and the reason was she was pregnant. She ran away and no-one knew where she was. Thankfully she eventually called her parents and now she is living not far away from Ubon with her husband. Her beautiful baby daughter ‘Ouay’ was a bundle of smiles and activity at 10 months old. I was happy to see her healthy and well. Sadly many young girls go missing and don’t end up so happy.

Anyway, that was my Saturday evening before I went and watched football with my foreign friends. I was happy to see something that I hadn’t before. So it wasn’t a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

Brunty