Welcome to The Wednesday Photo – a new picture each week highlighting something of interest in Thailand. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Another Chaiya Buddha

Chaiya buddha image

Each temple in Thailand has many Buddha images. It’s fascinating to see how some of them evoke an emotional response while others evoke nothing. I love the serenity of this statue, found in the courtyard of Wat Phra Boram That in Chaiya, Thailand.

There was a time when all of the statues at this temple were quite weathered and plain. Then one year, as the temple restored the various images, they transformed into gold, black and mother-of-pearl (for the eyes). At first I was very unhappy because there had been something very calming about all the statues, transformed as they were by time and the elements. Then I realized it was about the fact that everything is always changing and that if we try to grasp at something conditioned, expecting it to always remain the same, we will be unhappy, we will suffer.

Now, several years later, the once-pristine and restored Buddha images are beginning to age and transform again with time and the elements.

• Another Buddha statue from Chaiya