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| The monks at the installation ceremony |
The recently
concluded 2nd Dharma and Dhamma Conference organised jointly in
Bhopal by the Centre for Study of Religions and Society and Sanchi University
of Buddhist and Indic Studies prompted me to mount these photographs of
installation of a statue of Buddha near Sakon Nakhom in North-east Thailand
close to the Thai border with Laos. During our visit to Thailand in 2012 a
friend of 30 years, Akkhardej Chaiyabutr, popularly known as Deji, who now
addresses me as uncle, was to install a bronze statue of Buddha donated by him
to his village off the Great Asian Highway that passes through Sakon Nakhom.
While Deji carried the statue in his Toyota Corolla in an overnight drive, his
wife and we, that is my wife and I, took a flight from the Bangkok’s old Don
Muang Airport next afternoon. Deji was there to receive us at the natty little Sakon
Nakhom airport well decorated with beautiful Thai artefacts.
Next morning we
all travelled about 20 kilometres off the Great Asian Highway to Deji’s
impressive village for the Installation. Extensively ritualised, it is
virtually like installation of an image of Hindu gods and goddesses. Instead of
pundits it was monks who invested the statue with holiness and sanctified it to
convert it into a living deity. Naturally very important in conducting the
rituals, there was a battery of them who were honoured and feted and showered
with gifts. They too reciprocated and with Deji and others my wife and I were
also recipients of their gifts of cushions symbolic of those used by the Buddha
at the time of his Mahaparinirvana. Food being somewhat central to Thai life,
enormous platters containing a variety of delectable dishes beautifully
arranged were served to the monks
The photos of the event are in the
album. All were taken by Bandana Bagchi except the one in which she figures
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| The statue |
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| Details of the statueAdd caption |
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| The assemblage |
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| Another detail |
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| Seats arranged for monks |
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| Food for monks |
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| Making offerings to monks |
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| Self and Bandana with Deji and his wife |
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