Day 3 (6th Jan)

The tour guide said, “If you’ve not been to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, you’ve not been to Chiang Mai”. Delving deeper, this statement is rather perverse. The golden temple is a place of worship. It should be sacred and serene, for revered monks to pray and meditate. Now, millions of tourists flock up the mountain yearly, perhaps just to prove that they have been to Chiang Mai. It would be ludicrous to pretend that tourists like us can truly appreciate the heritage and religion with centuries of rich history in the two hours we spent there. The aggressive commercialization of the temple and its religion which supposedly disregards fame and fortune is a little ironic and regrettable to me.

The tour guide also told us that the number of monks in the countryside has dwindled due to the impoverished state of the temples, while temples popular among tourists, oozing with donations, are maintaining a healthy number of monks. He said “monks are human too”, and they prefer to live comfortably as well. It is surprising that the Chiang Mai society adopts a rather frank and compassionate perspective with regard to monkship when they are so deeply religious.