Phutthamonthon Park

---

Sunday KEI took us on a field trip to a park about 15 minutes from out apartments. It’s right off the main road that is always busy with traffic, but there’s a huge field in front, maybe two football fields in length, that sets the actual park away from the road. You drive down a wooded path, or walk through OZ, down a yellow brick road lined with trees and carved bushes. Once you enter the park, the sounds of the road are almost indistinct, and the songs of birds that are foreign to me, take over. This is actually the same park that Oak brought me to last week, the same one with the giant Buddha – I’ll get to that.

I want to teach you how to read Thai words, because they are really complicated, but you just have to approach them like any other multi-syllabic words – sound it out. But syllable pronunciation is a little different in Thai too, and can make it more complicated (not even going to get in to the inflections – Thai is a tonal language, which means the tone in which you say a word changes the meaning of that word. For example: Ma in falling tone is dog, while ma in rising tone is horse. Kai in falling tone means chicken, and kai in rising tone means egg.) Also, notice how in the spelling of Thai and Thailand, they use a “th” although you don’t say it like in “the”, but like in “tie”. That applies to the rest of Thai words also. The “h”’s are basically silent, but meant to indicate breathiness in the syllable instead of using the sharp consonant. For example, the P in “pillow” comes out with more breath than the P in “pop”, which is sharp and short.

So to say Phutthamonthon, you would pronounce:

“Phut” = Poot (don’t forget to put breath in this one, like Winnie the “pooh”)

To make it more complicated, you wouldn’t really say this with a hard “t” at the end. When Thai words end in “t”, they don’t say them, like in “put”, but like when you say, “put”, quickly. The “t” just kind of ends in your mouth and isn’t actually pronounced.

“Tah” = Tah (dah!) (breathy one)

“Mon” = Hey “mon”!

“Thon” = Ton (Like in “tonal” – put breath in this one)

Put it all together now:

Poot-Tah-Mon-Ton

Phoot – Ah – mon – thon

Phut – ta – mon – thon

Phuttamonthon

Got it? Okay! I hope you enjoyed my little, “how to speak Thai” tutorial 😊 lol

Anyway, earlier that day, I had taken a walk with Marissa to find some food across from campus. It’s probably a good 30 minutes, 2-mile walk to campus from out apartments. There’s a sidewalk we follow straight down for about… oh maybe a little over a mile and then turn on to another street (I don’t know any street names around here – there aren’t any signs and my GPS wont come up with any names). The sidewalks here are made from these big, thick, clay tiles that go around trees and sewers, and the sidewalks themselves are sometimes really wide – wide enough for motorbikes and bicycles to ride on them too. Sometimes they’re really narrow, or sometimes there are street signs that make them seem narrower, and sometimes they’re just a curb and then a shop or a bus stop. They’re also really high up from the street, maybe a good 6” or so. And there’s usually no grass or anything like there are between neighborhood sidewalks in America. These are like New York sidewalks – one side ends in a store/shop, and the other side is a curb to the street.

I don’t really see a lot of pedestrians on the sidewalks though, only people walking between shops along the same stretch of sidewalk, or walking other short distances. To get around almost everyone uses a motorbike or drives a car or takes a taxi.

Anyway, we walked about 2 miles to the main entrance of the campus. To cross the road, which is basically a dangerously crazy 8-lane highway (4 lanes going each way, separated by a large grassy median - actually there might even be more lanes than that), there are bridges that go up and over the street – walking bridges. You walk up two flights of steep, narrow stairs, and then go right over the main street and down on the other side. I don’t really want to explain my failed attempt at finding a meal, and the dreaded mystery meat since I’ve told the story so many times already, so if you really want to know, and you cant ask someone I’ve already told (aka mom)… email or message me on facebook 😊 but that’s basically all you need to know – restaurant closed, and I ended up with a mystery meat. Besides, what I had for lunch isn’t really part of the story of Phutthamonton, I only mention it because I’d already had a good 4 mile walk in that day before we walked all over the park!

Back in the park, we walked to this built in pond that sat at the edge of the long field and separated the road even farther from the giant Buddha. We stood around and took pictures for a while at this pond: selfies, pictures with friends, group pictures, and scenic pictures, and then followed the yellow brick road down to the Buddha. We took our shoes off at the bottom of the statue, and then took the stairs to be on its level. This Buddha statue is so huge that it actually had to have a chair made to place behind it because it was too top heavy once they got it erected. Actually, it just occurred to me that I never asked what the statue was made of, it looks like some sort of metal though. The statue is probably about 30ft tall, give or take, and its eyes are made to look downwards. If you were to look at the statue from any other angle than beneath it, you would think its eyes were closed, but standing in his shadow, you can see that there is just enough of a carved pupil to see him looking down at you. It’s intensely powerful. Oak taught me the other day how to give thanks to the Buddha so I decided to teach Andi to do it that day.

We walked up and took a few incense from the community package and lit them in the fires provided. We held them between our palms as we knelt before the statue, our hands at our chest, and cleared our minds and focused on a wish, or a prayer, that we wanted to express to Buddha. There were many people up at the foot of the Buddha, but, just like in a church, everyone knows to be quiet, even the kids were being quiet. You could hear maybe the faintest sounds from the road, but it could have also just been the wind, the foreign birds, and children and people playing and riding bikes distantly in the park. Even with all those sounds, when you kneel in front of the largest Buddha, incense in hand, close your eyes and focus only on yourself – your breathing – everything else seems trivial, everything else melts away. When you start coming back to yourself, your eyes open and you remember where you are, who you are with, and why you are here, you perform the deepest, most respectful wai, which is to bow deeply and bring your hands to the top of your head (granted it’s a little difficult with burning incense in your hands – but you do your best). Rise, and place the incense in the urns provided. People also will bring flowers and offer them to Buddha as well. Our program director who took us on this trip, View, told us that in offering scent to the Buddha, in way of incense and flowers, our messages have something to travel on and become more powerful.

After you meditate in front of the largest Buddha, and you see those eyes looking down on you, peering into your being and seeing you for what you really are, things feel different. I felt calm, peaceful, happy, elated, and simply, quiet. You feel like when you talk it should be slow and soft, and your movements should be deliberate and careful. Just as Andi and I walked back from our moment with Buddha, we saw a one-eyed-dog slowly walking around the area. He too could feel the calm, peaceful energy of all the people up there with him, and walked through them slowly, stopping every now and then just to look around and take it all in. And when we left the foot of the Buddha, he was taking a nap just on the edge (literally! Look at the pic!) of everybody. That must be a powerful place for a dog too, to feel that much peace and calm, probably very nice for a dog with such a rough life. There are so many strays around here. Developing countries like this one, don’t really spay or neuter their pets unless a medical issue arises that calls for it to save the animal’s life, otherwise, it’s seen as cruel and unnecessary. It’s a shame really, there are so many dogs out there that need a good, loving home, but the people in Thailand do take care of them on a marginal level, even the stray cats too. At night I will see dogs and cats (not at the same place of course) eating from piles of food put out by the people, and therefore I really haven’t seen any dogs or cats that look too skinny, or unhealthy in the manner of getting fed. However, I have seen many open wounds, mange, and missing eyes and tails. I would love to help work at a dog shelter, but there’s a part of me that thinks these dogs might actually be living better lives on the streets. On the streets at least they have a pack, they have places to roam, and occasionally someone who loves and feeds them. In the shelter, they’re caged and separated, and there probably isn’t much hope of finding them a home.

I do think there is a volunteer opportunity at MUIC to help shelter animals, or “animals of Thailand”, or something a long those lines. I signed up for it a while ago, I don’t remember exactly what it was about, but I also don’t know when I’ll hear about how I actually can get involved.

Regardless, back to the Buddha, paying respects to the Buddha wasn’t the only peaceful experience of that day for me. After we left the Buddha, we went to a creek/lake that flows through the park where initially we went to feed the fish, but the person who sold fish food/bread wasn’t there so we just sat around and enjoyed the scenery. I ended up separating myself from the group a little ways and sat alone on a bench with a thatched roof above my head. I closed my eyes again and listened to and felt the wind blow about me, heard the occasional laughter or shout from the group, and the waves (or fish) splashing about in the water. Max came and got me once the group decided to move on, and we walked back through the woods to another part of the lake where they were still selling fish food. We bought some stale bread and walked over to the lake to toss it to the fish. THESE FISH ARE HUGE! Some said they’re catfish, others said carp, but whatever they were they were damn fat too! Probably from all the bread they get fed, but now I understand why View wanted us to feed the fish so bad, because THEY’RE HUGE! And sometimes they fight over a piece of bread and splash around in the water. It’s extraordinarily entertaining, and before I knew it I was out of bread!

By the time we left the park it was getting dark (we got there around 4:30 in the afternoon), it get’s dark here at about 6:00 and by 6:30, there’s barely any light left. It’s interesting because the sun comes up around 6:30-7:00 in the morning, so the days here are just about exactly 12 hours long. I wonder if that changes at all throughout the year, because we’re so close to the equator here, I wonder if the length of day stays relatively the same, or fluctuates at all like it does back home. I would venture it’s the former rather than the latter, but maybe I’ll find out!

After the park we got some food, and then I headed home to write up my presentation and critique on an article for my Thai Society class. I knew it wouldn’t take me very long, which is why I was able to leave it until the last minute, and I was right. Finished it in just an hour or two and killed it the next day when I presented! (Another blog to come on that).



So that was my peaceful (mostly) Sunday! I’m so happy we went to that park and spent so much time there. I’m happy that I was able to meditate at the foot of a giant Buddha and feel the power emanating from him and the people around me. I’m happy that I got to feel, and hear, and smell, the things around me in one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. I’m so happy that there is a park so close to all of this city madness. One of the main things that was bothering me back home was my lack of relationship with nature, my falling out with nature, and being here hasn’t helped that yet since I live in a big city, with city noises and smells all around me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a wonderful experience, it’s amazing, lively, and everyone is as friendly as driving down by the lake in the south. Thailand is “The Land of Smiles”, and I experience that every day. No matter where you are, a smile will always be met with a smile, a nod with a nod, a laugh with a laugh, but sometimes you just want to get away from it all. Away from the sounds of traffic, people shouting, the hammering and sawing of metal at construction sites, and the smells of the open sewers, the strange food being grilled on every corner, exhaust, and rotting garbage on the sides of the streets. Away to where I hear only the wind and the birds, and the occasional child playing around me. Away to where I smell only the water and the grass, and the flowers in the trees. Phutthamonthon Park has been my best experience yet in Thailand, and I hope to go back many more times!!

---

Photos

Buddha!
I will never get a good enough picture to capture all the details in the carving of his robes and features :/

Me and Buddha!
He holds his hands in a symbol that means "OK" in western terms, but here it represents the circle of life, from birth to old age

Thatched roof huts where we would have fed the fish
If there was some one selling fish food (before we found the place that did sell it)