Wednesday 31 August 2011
the temple tree
One finds these trees scattered around Thailand. The bodhi tree represents both the tree under which Siddhartha Gautama was sitting when he attained enlightenment, and the buddha himself. The branches and poles leaning against the tree represent the followers of the buddha, leaning on or being oriented toward him, seeking to find enlightenment under his aegis as he found it under the tree. On some trees the poles are carved, decorated with ribbons, scarves, and other embellishments such as this origami dragonfly, or painted bright colors, seeming to seek attention to their devotional role; on others they are simple branches, simply leaning for support.
The base of this tree was also home to a clay figure of a chicken, and a hen and her chicks were weaving their way among the poles and roots.
Tuesday 30 August 2011
Elephants and spirit house
This temple had eclectic outdoor decor; stone elephants, buddha statues, spirit houses, guardians on the gateposts, and a bodhi tree.
Monday 29 August 2011
Baan Tawai
At the Baan Tawai Woodcarving Village. This is really a shopping center, comprised of many independently-run stalls. A lot of locally-produced wood crafts, from furniture to statues, model ships to tableware. Also lots of other things, mostly locally hand-crafted.
And here, a motorcycle and triple-headlighted-antique bicycle, housed in one of the shops.
Sunday 28 August 2011
First bike ride, Chiang Mai
We rode through small roads, with homes, shops, the metal-sided night club at bottom, crop fields like the one below, some with spirit houses by the road.
Baan Nam Ping
Views from the porch of Baan Nam Ping, the lovely place where we stayed for the first few days in Chiang Mai.
paint palette world
so much seen from a bicycle
riding roads south of Chiang Mai
by the flooding Mae Ping
every place has a spirit house
each home and store and plot of land
tucked near the road
the gleaming new, the tumbledown:
white-washed, stone, or peeling-paint-ed;
golden-hued, flower-strewn,
full of little statue-people
demi-gods & warriors;
elephants & chariots
incense, candy: offerings
in a corner energy hovers, shimmering, but
on the roads bright life holds sway:
deep black Greater Coucal
with rich russet back
Red-whiskered Bulbul with tangerine coverts
Mynahs, Mynahs everywhere
they are the starlings of Thailand
mostly Common but so many
species we might see
Crested, Jungle, Hill, White-vented,
Javan, Collared, Golden-crested;
black splashed bright with
orange and white.
Doves... Before I left home
riding up the west side highway along the Hudson
alone atop a double-decker bus
melting in the sun
drying in the breeze
going dead-head from Battery to Times Square
a flash across the road
a belly: cream, tinged tawny rose
tilted in flight to show
the warm, soft, mouse-fur grey-brown back
moist purple-chocolate spots
rounded form but slender slight; delicate, elegant,
diagnose a Mourning Dove
Here are many doves. One similar to our Mourning
but all exaggerated: smaller and more streamlined,
more spots becoming mottle-stripes:
the Oriental Turtle-Dove.
Seen on roads & bushes & overhead wires & oddly
in cages, cooing at cousins
who walk oblivious down the road
a Cinnamon Bittern rises from the paddy;
settles slowly in the trees
butterflies abound
pale cold-butter-yellow ones small as a thumbnail
stay close to the ground--less turbulence
among the low-growing flowers perhaps
tiger-colored swallowtails weave a drunken course through trees
deep purple velvet pair--a hand's-breadth each--
dance a complex minuet in the road
another of conventional size, black & pale-lavender-white
hangs upside down, rotating slowly,
perfectly splayed as if pinned
in a Victorian curio, from a spider's well-placed
invisible web.
dragonflies, some the size of hummingbirds (or perhaps not quite)
in varying tones of earth and light
from deep rich scarlet
of just-spilled blood to warm rust brown to
surprising incandescent chartreuse
follow down the road, confounding the sense of distance and of size:
perspective
Certain, quite certain, I saw the stripy belly of a cuckoo
so many species of cuckoo so common so many
places I've been & sought them
and heard them, but never a sure
sighting to tick off on the life-list. Passed
a sign for skystone storm forest home
a legend, myth, fairy-tale place right here
who lives there?
a Drongo, I think, with three long tail-
feather shafts; a squarish pendant on the
shorter, center one. Certain of what I saw,
but it's not in the book. So much for certainty.
Never ever rely upon your certainty.
Bright new temples; every entrance flanked by twinned
Nagas, the chaos-serpent-guardians;
some garish to my eye (accustomed to the gloomy romance of old
gothic stone) fresh white paint
mirrored tiles in clear, blue, green, red
gilded dragons overhead on eaves and balustrades
tinkling bells hang from corners of broad
roofs but there are delicate carved-wood doors &
one's extensive muraled walls
tells stories: the devouring giant,
emerald green; the saving giant bird, rose-gold,
driving down the sky with gods on its back and
who, by vanquishing, saves.
the temples accommodate, encompass,
what comes before and around them
the spirit houses are not Buddhist but the temples
have them and
sometimes the spirit houses
have spirit houses
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)