Traditional Temples and Modern Malls: Today's Lampang

Wat Phrakaew

Wat Phrakaew

In a country where over 90 percent of the people claim Buddhism as their preferred worldview, temples play an important role in the lives of the faithful. They are places of worship, places to "make merit", places to honor the ancestors,  education centers to train new monks and memorialize deceased monks, tourist sites to bring out-of-town family to visit, and the preferred places to hold funerals. However, unlike in Christian churches, weddings are never held at Buddhist temples.

These are young Buddhist monks in training at Wat Phrakaew. These young men live and study full time at the temple apart from their families. Some will leave to attend university but many will continue as Buddhist monks for their entire lives.

This picture illustrates a New Year tradition in Thailand. Wooden poles cut from trees, often painted white, and place under a canopy so that Thai people can write on them with marker pens as a way of honoring deceased family or friends or to wish good fortune for the coming year to social group of which they are members. The  poles are then placed upright under a Bodhi tree on the temple grounds - symbolically "holding up" the Buddha's tree of enlightenment.

Faithful worshipers also purchase buckets of sand to pour onto a symbolic "pagoda" and place flags on top of it to represent good wishes for the coming new year.

Water plays an essential role in Thai New Year celebrations. On the first day of the festivities people throughout the country throw buckets of water at one another and spray each other with hoses to represent beginning the new year clean. (Beth and I missed this day, unfortunately.)

People also visit temples and pour or spray water on statues and shrines and decorate them with offerings of flowers and colorful garlands as a way of "making merit."

(In Buddhism, "merit" is believed to be a beneficial protective force that accumulates for an individual as a result of good works and deeds.)

Nirund explained to Beth that the Chinese-Thai Zodiac is based on a person's birth year.  It turns out Beth is an Elephant (the Royal animal) and both Nirund and I are Roosters.

A statue of a royal white elephant carrying a replica of the Emerald Buddha stands in the courtyard of Wat Phrakaew. This stone pillar and bronze plaque stands beside it explaining in Thai and English the story behind the statue.


According to Thai tradition, in the 1400's when the Emerald Buddha was being carried on a royal white elephant from Laos to Thailand, the elephant carrying it refused to go any further than Lampang. As a result, this holy relic remained at Wat Phrakaew for the next 32 years. Later, the Emerald Buddha was moved to the nearby city of Chiangmai and eventually brought to its present location within the Golden Temple in Bangkok.

Hopefully, we will be able to view the real Emerald Buddha when we visit the capital next week.

After an afternoon nap (most welcome in 95-degree heat and humidity), Nirund and Petcharin took us to Lampang's new multi-story mall. Built just five years ago, this city-block sized structure is truly impressive. It has underground parking (complete with uniformed attendants), escalators, both modern and traditional shops, and every kind of restaurant and eatery imaginable.


We waited almost an hour for a booth at MK's, a popular hot pot restaurant, but spent the time walking around the 3rd floor of the mall checking out the incredible variety of shops and stores.

The Mall has several family areas with fun climbing creatures and even has an arcade devoted to rides and activities specifically for children.


Once inside MK's, Nirund and Pet ordered our dinner for us. Our appetizer platter of deep fried duck and pork belly was followed by a seemingly endless array of trays filled with meats, vegetables, shrimp, and fish balls - all to go into the pot of boiling broth which sat on an electric hot plate built into the center of the table. Petcharin did most of the cooking but we all did the eating! Petcharin finished our meal by adding a bowl of rice and two raw eggs to the remaining broth, stirred it all together and made a lovely soup.

After dinner we walked around the mall for a little while and then concluded the evening with a stop at Swenson's Ice Cream Shop for a two-scoop sundae of Mango and Chocolate ice creams served on a bed of green sticky rice! Excellent! (Who knew ice cream on sticky rice would be perfect?)