UNSEEN THAILAND TREASURE

This is one of the most beautiful Budda's I have ever seen I have never seen a image of Budda as a young boy , and here pointing up

This is a huge wheel ,whitin small wheels each with a different number ingraved in them and on golden colored balls, the thing on top, that looks light a old lighten rod ,has a glass ball filled with green liquid.

I thought for a minute he was real

Budda on a snake or dragon with lots of heads,pretty scarey sight

A traveling Budda which I have never seen

Another image of Budda , I never have seen so many different ones in one place .

I don't know what this is suppose to be or it's importants in the Buddish religon, May you could enlighten me ?

A beautiful collection of Budda's and monks, and angelic beings. very colorful , and everything is well maintained and cared for.

The Stairway to the sky (I called it ) goes to a huge cave at the top all locked up to keep down theif and vandalism

So, you ask ? What is this unseen Thailand treasure . well, it is not a simple answer, but I'll try to say what I'm posting about . Yesterday me and Ciejay decided to explore a couple of roads that lead off into the mountains behind our house , living here five years, I had never drove down them . Well we drove for about 10 kls. thru valleys and hills and up and down winding roads and all of a sudden there was a huge Thai temple in front of us , Now I have come to the conclusion , that there are Wats and there are Temples in Thailand, each one with a different purpose, ( no research here) just my thoughts, I think the Wats are for the local people , cremation, making of a monk , marring , and feeding and taking care of the local monks . The Temples,are not as often, visited (by tourist and sight seers). are for the Thais to come and pay respect to Budda , to study about Budda's life and teachings, to relax and meditate, and to offer tamboon and to make merit. and to display Thai treasures and artifacts from old times , and I think a lot of these are for Thai eyes only and not for the tourist to goggle over and snap photo and walk over places with no respect for Budda and his teachings.Such was the Temple that we found yesterday , I was in awe of the beauty and care and solitude and quiteness of this place , I found out that there were forty people (Monks and Nuns ) and labors paid for by the temple to keep and preserve the natural beauty and and splender that I was beholding.Does that sound a little hollywoodish, well thats just the way I felt being there , like it was a national Thai treasure , and I had the pleasure and experience of getting to see it with my own eyes, I showed great respect to everything and after a while the Nun that spoke english said to me "you can take a picture if you like, just show respect."I felt very privileged to have found this wonderful Thai Treasure. This is amazing Thailand and you never know what you will find off the beaten path or around the next bend,I hope you take a little time out to explore you area , there is a lot more to see than you know. I will post a few pictures this time and a few more next time around , I took lots of pictures some quickly as I did'nt want to impose on the Nun showing us around. the stairway you see leading up goes to a cave that they keep locked, as the artifacts in there are hundreds of years old , and years ago they had some of them stolen, one of a kind treasures never again to be seen. She gave me the key to the door and told me where the light was and said she was to old to climb all those stairs , I told her" thank you", but, I'll come back another day if I may , she said I would be welcome.Ciejay was glad for my decision as she did'nt want to climb the stairs too. I hope to return again soon for another adventureous day in the LOS, and take lots of pictures to share with all of you .Also if you want to see more I will be posting them in Malcolm and Ciejay's pictures on our web site at www.geocities.com/thaimalcolm/index.html hope you enjoy Malcolm