My 8-year-old was the first to voice his exhaustion. “Mommy, just how many Buddhas do we have to see in Thailand?” Granted, it was a sweltering 98 degrees in Bangkok and we were probably on our ninth temple of the day. Before that, we’d chased Buddhas throughout the southern part of the country, where it was equally hot and humid. And prior to arriving in Bangkok, we’d traveled around Japan catching even more glimpses of the Enlightened One. The Great Buddha in Kamakura, Japan, which towers over sightseers, was probably my children’s favorite. And, in their view, a great place to end the Buddha tour.
But no chance of that, kids, now that we were in Thailand for five days and the Buddhas here were as plentiful as the Pad Thai. Not to mention the fact that Mommy, a self-declared Buddhist-in-training, was armed with a map and a determination to see just how powerful this figure reigns in Thai culture.
Born in Nepal in the 6th century B.C., Siddhartha Gautama, who would one day become known as Buddha, was a spiritual leader and teacher whose life serves as the foundation of the Buddhist religion. The events of his life are debated, but according to the most widely known story, after experimenting with different teachings for years and finding none of them acceptable, Gautama spent a fateful night in deep meditation. During this meditation, all the answers he had been seeking became clear and he achieved full awareness—thereby becoming Buddha.
That day, we visited “the Awakened One” (another nickname for Buddha) in his many forms throughout Bangkok. We saw the Golden Buddha at the temple of Wat Traimit, the 45-centimeters-tall Emerald Buddha (made of gorgeous green nephrite and clothed in gold) at Wat Phra Kaew, and the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. Not to mention many more Buddhas on and around the grounds of the Royal Palace. Afterward, the kids were rewarded for their minimal complaining with two hours in the hotel swimming pool and a promise to spend the next day tracking down not Buddhas, but elephants and monkeys instead.
