Sunday at Wat Buddahanusorn

[PeaBrain]

My birthday was a perfect California day at the Wat. I have never seen more people here. I concentrated on statue pics, flirting with the ladies, eating, and making friends.

[PeaBrain]

Pics II

[PeaBrain]

This is a family event and children are a big part of Sunday at Wat Buddahanusorn.

[xfiles20001999]

more updates please...

[bassai]

The Kuan Yin statue has something to do with the people, Chinese/ Thai, who bought the land/built the temple. Unfortunately I got called away and didn't get the full story. I'll try and get the skinny when I'm down there again.

[bassai]

Since I've been staying at the Wat for a little while now I decided to train for a back up career in case being a monk didn't work out. This also doubles as an impromptu Thai language course which last all day.

The Sunday food court is a pretty big event here and the serious preping and set up starts on Friday. Generally Friday is the veggie cutting day and a couple of hours will be spent by several people in just shredding papaya for Som Tum. This also includes a couple huge bags of carrots. I've been teasing the volunteer teachers from Thailand that they probably had no idea they would be scully maids and janitors when they weren't teaching!

I've slowly worked my up from prep cook to actual noodle vendor. Perhaps it would be more correct to say prep cook and noodle vendor. This is what the good kamma of meditating with the right people will get you! Today I was actually trusted enough to fly solo a few times and my very first costumer was a farang who came up and conducted his entire order in Thai! I got a really big kick out of this and when I related the story my friends teased me that the only reason I understood him was because he had an American accent.

Today was Sard Thai ceremony, but I spent the entire day over a pot of boiling water and sauce dishing out noodles or running gofer for the other food court volunteers. Of course the clean up from this event is monumental, but everyone cheerfully pitches in and it's done in no time. Needless to say, one of the big advantages to helping in the food court is the day long snacking. Fortunately I am not under the 8 precepts now so I have no food restrictions.

[yy]

Sounds like good and yummy fun both at the same time. Happen to have any photos of the kitchen scene? ^^

[bassai]

Yes I do. My internet connection went south last night and I wasn't able to upload the pictures then.


Gam shredding Papaya


Would you buy noodles from this man?


Curry station


Pad thai station


There's always a line and a wait for the Pad Thai. These ladies are tough! They cook Pad Thai non stop from 10am until 2pm with no break in between.

[bassai]

More.....

Attachment 17920
Friday papaya prep.

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Temple circumnavigation.

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Temple circumnavigation.

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Temple circumnavigation.

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Money does grow an trees!

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All that education being put to good use.

Sard Thai is a Buddhist Memorial Service for the departed which is held in the 10th lunar month of every year.
It includes Tesana Mahachati which is a traditional sermon pertaining to the previous life's of the Lord Buddha. There were 13 stories that were told (chanted) this Sunday at the temple. People would sponsor one of the chants, donate money (hence the money tree) and attend their particular chant. There was also traditional Thai music and dancing performed as well.

I didn't really participate an any of the festivities and confined myself to scully work at the food court to free up other people to break away and take it all in. It get's pretty over whelming at times and I'm beginning to learn that I'm never going to get all the details and information about anything in an orderly and timely manner. It generally takes a few weeks to piece together the drips and drabs into a coherent story!

[PeaBrain]

Hey Bassai. Let's do lunch. The Pea is treating !