Happy Angels- A Wat Suan Dok Compendium

I live in a traditional and fascinating Thai neighborhood! It's much like many others- a vital, organic, bustling microcosm of one aspect of Thai culture and family life, but it is also unique- because of Wat Suan Dok.

It's less than a hundred yards from the front of my hotel to the southeast gate- one of five, of Wat Suan Dok. In the minute or so it takes to get there I pass a laundry, two eateries, a grocery store, the local police post, and several local soi dogs!

The wat is the dominant physical feature of the neighborhood. It is set against the backdrop of the nearby mountains and day and night- the main stupa is illuminated from 7-10 evenings, it commands the view from our balcony. Some mornings chanting and spiritual music carry into our apartment. In the late afternoon the daily announcements of upcoming wat events are often preceded by a sweet music that casts its own spell.

For the neighborhood and the surrounding community the temple is a key source of financial support. Early in the morning vendors arrive and set up their snack, drink and school supply stands on the wat grounds. They cater not only to the hundreds of resident and commuting monks, but also to the visitors that arrive daily on tour busses, vans and- for the more energetic, riding bikes or on foot.

Before noon the food stalls and shops on our soi are splashed in orange as the young monks take their last solid food of the day. Later- afternoon classes over, they will again visit the soi. Browsing in pairs or in small groups they are a colorful, constant and important part of day to day life here.

The original temple was completed more than a hundred years before Columbus set sail for the new world. In addition to the original construction of the huge main temple and the massive stupa behind it, later modifications included many smaller chedi (je-dee) that contain the remains of past royalty. For the Thais it is a uniquely sacred place.

Behind the main temple and surrounding the primary chedi, is a large plaza intricately paved with ochre tile. At each entrance to the plaza there are "Please Remove Your Shoes" signs. Here more monuments- each spiritually and aesthetically unique, surround the main stupa.

Set among them are several small black marble altars where Thais- about 95% are Theravada Buddhists, place lotus blossoms, light candles and incense, and offer prayers for loved ones. Others come to make merit for more practical reasons- in hopes of improving their fortunes.

Here and there- but strategically placed I'm sure, different-sized, cast bronze bells hang from stands. At each stand there is a wooden club so Thais can move from bell to bell ringing them. They give the bells a good whack but I like to tap them softly and listen closely as the various tones of each one slowly fade.

Yellow sashes are placed around some of the chedi but they are also put around other spiritually significant objects such as large trees. When I asked Duong about the sashes she said it meant there were "happy angels" there.

We had a talk one time about spirits and I explained to her that growing up as Catholics we believed that each of us had "guardian angels" that watched over us- usually perched on our right shoulder! They also taught us that the devil was perched next to our left ear.. which may explain a lot about me!

I said I didn't believe that now but there have been times in my life- and there are still, when a sense, a feeling, an inner "voice" comes on so strong that it is difficult to ignore it.

I told her about a time when I was young and a friend and I had taken the night train from Waltham to go fishing at Walden Pond. On the early morning walk back along the tracks from the Concord station to Walden Pond, we stopped and sat on one of the rails to check our jar of worms!

Suddenly I had this strong feeling that we should get off the tracks. Moments later, just as we were moving down the embankment, a train flashed by. It came so quickly there was no way we could have moved in time. Guardian angel, sixth sense, vibrations in the rails.. who knows for sure.

So now when Duong tries to explain about good spirits to me she calls them "happy angels!"

She said that happy angels don't have a life of their own but they can exist within the spirit/place of another- a venerable tree for example, or a chedi that contains the relics of a holy monk. There may be up to seven different colored sashes on any given spirit place. The Thais will tell you there are reasons for each of the different sashes, but I think one of the reasons is that they just like to do it!

There are spirits of a different sort around chedi plaza as well! The wat is home to somewhere between thirty and forty dogs! When Thais cannot or do not want to take care of their dogs any longer they often drop them off at a temple. Or someone may find a stray in need of a home and drop it off! They are never turned away and all are accommodated and fed. Wat Suan Dok probably has a half dozen packs of varying size and each has its own fiercely defended territory.

The "chedi gang" hang out around the monk's dorms and the plaza, and have learned to move around the tiers to warm themselves in the morning or find shade in the afternoon! In the evening they range over to the big parking lot to wait for the rice man- he arrives on a bicycle with a basket of rice and other scraps between seven and eight, and goes from territory to territory feeding the dogs. Other Thais and the monks do the same. The wat dogs are worth a blog of their own some day!

Also around the plaza are the toothy spirits called naga (na-kaa.) In Indian mythology they are a semi-divine race part human and part cobra! According to legend they listened to his teachings and protected the Buddha during his travels but they could not enter the temples because they were still part animal. They are most often found positioned at the entrances to temples- still providing protection and still denied access.

Every April there is a Naga Festival at a town called Nong Khai which sits on the Thai side of the Mekong- the river border between Thailand and Laos. For days thousands of people flock to Nong Khai and line the riverbank because flashes of light, and large booms- naga surfacing after rising from the river depths, can sometimes be heard echoing across the river. The scientific explanation is that bubbles of gas are being released from the bottom sediment as it reaches a critical temperature each Spring. And a few years ago the booms and flashes were attributed to Laos soldiers firing their guns on the far bank.

Neither theory sat well with the local tourism bureau which wanted no truck with nonsense about gas bubbles or military ballistics threatening the town coffers. So in the finest Thai tradition the deeply offending rumors were first vigorously denied, then pointedly ignored until they were put to rest. And so the naga and the tourists continue to show up each April!

Like the wat dogs the pigeons also move with the sun. Before they head out to find food they are spread out on the roofs and peaks to catch the sun's first rays. Later in the day they will come back to roost, and then they will use the eaves to shade themselves from the sun or shelter from the rain.

When the occasional hawk appears in the area the pigeons and the other birds around just disappear- and just as magically reappear when the all clear sounds!

On Fridays the teachers- many of whom are government employees, wear their military type kaki uniforms to class and the students dress in traditional clothing. The girls especially are beautiful in their brightly colored skirts and blouses. They also use the occasion to arrange their hair in intricate braids or piled in swirls on top of their head.

When I was teaching in Thai schools in Bangkok and Chiang Rai, Friday was my favorite day because- other than the obvious, my students looked so different they seemed to acquire different personas as well.

A typical scene during special student days at the wat- a ball game in progress, food vendors, and always a dog or three.

Her name is Wannasri but she likes her nickname "Pong." We have become good friends. Now in her early thirties, she has been selling her artwork at this same spot in front of the main temple since she was thirteen.

When I went out to eat, do errands, or go for a bike ride I usually cut through the wat grounds, and most mornings she would be there. I always stopped to chat with her- she is fluent in English and Japanese, asked how business was going, and how her family was doing.

She and her husband Somchai work together on the artwork they produce and sell. They collect pie plate sized leaves from the "Po" trees around the temple, clean and cover them with "sa" paper, and used them as the canvass for the watercolors and inks sketches they create. They do their own mounting and framing.

Somchai usually collects their two adolescent daughters from school and comes to pick up Pong at the wat around 12:30. Then they quickly pack the easel, plastic totes and table into the trunk of their old car and head home so he can rest

He is crippled with a spinal disorder and driving or doing anything physical quickly wears him out. Both of their daughters also have skeletal problems, and Pong is "disabled" as well.

On a good day she may sell two or three framed pieces that range in price from 300-500Bt ($9-15) each. Most of the purchases come from foreign visitors who arrive on tour busses. Many days there are no tour busses and no sales. They don't make much money. They get some assistance from the government, but in the three years I've known them they have always been struggling to pay medical bills, feed their family and simply survive.

For the last year they have been trying to get permission to relocate their small business to a better site up on the mountain at Wat Doi Suthep. It's the most popular temple site in Ching Mai and has many more visitors.

At first they patiently but persistently went up through local channels, but when that didn't work, in a series of carefully crafted letters, they sought help from an organization affiliated with the Royal Family! Initially these precipitated a response from the locals in the form of more applications to submit and several visits to their home by the local officials to assess their need. It seemed like progress was at last being made, but each visit also meant that Pong and Somchai had to spend time and precious energy readying their home and hosting the visiting officials.

At each stage there were weeks of waiting and hoping to see if their request had been granted- and at each stage nothing happened. The problem was that sites at Wat Doi Suthep are in great demand and thus can be leveraged by the powers at the wat for donations- in effect they are local political plums to be doled out for maximum return. Whether Pong and Somchai will ever get to set-up at Wat Doi Suthep, we don't know, but as of now they are still waiting and hoping.

Meanwhile the grounds around the big temple at Wat Suan Dok have recently undergone a facelift. Familiar old palms have been uprooted and new trees planted. The vendors have been moved from their long-time spot under the trees near the front of the main temple, and new tiles, turf and lights have replaced them.

"Jose"- Pong's constant companion at the wat since he was a pup, has moved. The little spot that Pong used for twenty years is now the site of a temporary billboard and she is gone.

The good news is that at a spot just to the right of where the photo below was taken- right next to the oldest temple at Wat Duan Dok, there is now a brightly lit, sparkling new ATM.

Five minutes from my door is my favorite restaurant in all of Thailand! Under the huge canopy of a massive Po- a Buddha Tree, Pun Pun at the wat serves portions of delicious vegetarian meals for around thirty to forty baht- a dollar!

Since I met Duong I've ranged a little more but for a long time I ate here at least five times a week. The food is so good- wonderful sauces and salad dressings, that everyplace else is a step down. Almost all of their produce is grown on their own farms and they make their own yogurt and tofu. Their decadent fresh ground coffee comes from the nearby mountains and I'm free to take away their books and magazines to read and return.

We won't talk about the mosquitos!

Around the corner from Pun Pun is the "Monk Chat" center. Anyone can come to talk with the English speaking monks about Buddhism or anything else. My monk friends Suvarnat and Tunee are two of the hosts for the sessions there. It is so popular that they have steadily increased their hours.

"Typos" and misspellings when going from Thai to English are common and often amusing. No matter how tactfully you might put it, pointing out a mistake would still cause someone to lose face, so I just enjoy them.

More Asians visit Wat Suan Dok but falang come too. The folks above are using the gold dome as the backdrop for their pictures.

The grassy area and "chedi plaza" are especially popular just before sunset when cooler air lifts the heat of midday and the soft evening light seems to soothe. Duong and I go there after eating to just sit and watch.

And it seems no matter what time of the day, somewhere around the wat there will be a ball in the air!

All over the wat grounds there are small signs with messages to help wayward spirits on their journey along the correct path.

Still not religious mind you, but some of it sounds a little like my "Happy Angel!"