Tempelceremoni Wat Ku Tao

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Oktober markerar början av regnperiodens tillbakagång.
Skolorna har en 3-veckors ledighet. Många festivaler hålls.

Vattnet som drabbat Chiang Mai fortsätter söderut och kommer att förvärra de redan katastrofalt drabbade områdena kring centralplatån, även vissa områden i Bangkok har översvämmats. Ayutthaya provinsen är allra värst utsatt, utdrag ur Bangkok Post;
 

"With the flood situation on the Central Plain continuing to worsen, authorities have set evacuation plans for residents in Ayutthaya and Phichit provinces, and all 16 districts of Ayutthaya have been declared disaster zones.

Several riverside communities were under more than two metres of water yesterday as the Lop Buri River surged. Many roads were rendered impassable and some temples and hospitals were evacuated.
Ayutthaya governor Witthaya Piewpong called an urgent meeting of the 16 district chiefs to find ways to deal with yet more run-off which is set to flow into the province from the North.
Municipalities, local bodies, kamnan and village heads have been told to find safe locations where residents can be evacuated to immediately.
Flooding started in Ayutthaya on Sept 4 and has affected more than 224,000 residents. Run-off from the North is raising levels of the Chao Phraya, Pasak, Lop Buri and Noi rivers."

Wat Ku Tao har Burmesiska influenser, utdrag ur en faktalänk från i-net;
"A further indication of Burmese links with Wat Ku Tao may be found in . . .  Ethnic Pluralism in the Northern Thai City of Chiang Mai. It clearly identifies Wat Ku Tao as part of a group of Shan temples located outside the northern walls of old Chiang Mai, together with Wat Chiang Yeun and Wat Papao. This identification is based in part on a manuscript dating from the reign of King Chulalongkorn (1852-1902) and deposited at Wat Chedi Luang, identifying temples associated with particular non-Muang ethnic groups in the late 19th century.
To this may be added the more recent bilingual inscriptions (in Thai and English) displayed at Wat Ku Tao itself, in an environment still tended by monks wearing the dark ochre robes of Burma and the Shan States rather than the paler saffron of Chiang Mai and Thailand."

Detta templet tycks leva upp ordentligt en gång om året med en stor ceremoni, bilderna visar dans, musik, teater, mat, välsignelser och (penga)gåvor. (Som alltid gäller: större bilder efter klick på resp.)

"Vackra pengar". Stora belopp ges som gåvor till templet. I retur får man välsignelse och gratis mat samt underhållning.
Och förbättrad karma.