Tag Archives: buddhism The beauty (and frustration) of living in Thailand lies in the ability of people to hold mutually incompatible ideas at the same time, and to never speak about some things which everyone knows. Take Sukhothai, for example: that most revered of ancient Thai cities. Sukhothai was originally a trade centre, enjoying a degree of autonomy […]  The temples of Thailand are extraordinarily diverse; nowhere is this more true than in the north. From the black and white expressions of modern Thai artists (Two Artists: Contrasting Visions), to Golden Buddhas with their backs to casinos and drug trade (Golden Ratios and the Sublime); I’ve said before that Thai temples are not all the […]  Khmer ruins are just magic! Moss and lichen make their homes on the piles of tumbled stones, trees grow up and through fallen buildings, holding walls together with their roots, light and shadow play across the whole scene. Wat Ek Phnom, just outside Battambang, may not be the best known of the Angkor ruins, but […]  “The mosquitos are our friends.” These were the words of Beatrix, our pranayama (breathing exercise) teacher as we sat in a small, hot, darkening room in Nong Khai, Northern Thailand. Her voice embodied calm, as only a yogini’s can, as it floated through the buzzing, humming, mosquito-filled evening. These words spun around my head as I sat […]  “By the way, you DO have your passports with you, don’t you?” our guide asked (in Thai) after the van we were in had pulled away from our hotel. At least, that is what I finally figured out she had said – by which time we were already five or ten minutes down the highway. Negotiating […] |
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