Thursday 19 March 2009

Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Thailand



The Dhammakaya temple is located also in the Pathumtani Province, next to the V star centre across a stretch of road. Immediately, I took an interest in its spaceship-like structure. More importantly, the gold part of the temple is called the Dhammakaya Cetiya (stupa) and is the symbol of world peace. This monumental landmark holds the largest mass meditation for Buddhists and peace-loving people from around the globe. The construction of this temple is very much intriguing. To read more, click here.

The cetiya is designed to hold a million Buddha statues, each taking a space 15cm by 15 cm. At the moment, only 300,000 are built. With the economy crisis, it may take longer to fill up the rest of the cetiya with the other 700,000. You can have one built with your name under it for a certain sum of money and that really sparked up the skepticism in me. As much as it is amazing and interesting, a big part of me feels genuinely disappointed as I thought about what great use the money could have been. I was told that this is a gesture of faith but I personally do believe that acts of faith can be performed in many better ways. I couldn't stop thinking about it for a while until I came up with a justification, that sometimes people need physical affirmations. The only agreeable and good thought I consoled myself with is that people stay united for a good cause.

I managed a shot from the car as we were leaving the area.



This construction site is to become a mega huge amphitheater for meditation purposes. I apologise for the bad shot, was trying not to take the barricades by the side and attempted zoomed shots instead. If you look close enough at the tiles around the big '4', you'll notice 32 is the biggest number and indeed, they have 32 of these similar structures as the one you're seeing. And, yes, that seems like a cemented version of the blueprint. It's SOOO HUGE, this place.

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