Taking only photographs – leaving only footprints
Bangkok has many Buddhist temples and although I haven’t spent a long time in the city, I have been to a few of the more famous ones. One of them is Wat Pho, near the Grand Palace. Also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha this is the biggest Buddha statue (or any statue for that matter) that I have seen. It is 15 metres high and 43 metres long. I included a couple of tourists in the lower left corner of the photograph to give a proper sense of scale.
Phra Sawetkudakarn Viharn Yod is a temple at Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand. Rather than being a single structure, this is one of numerous buildings that make up the Grand Palace. The colourful patterned details on the corners and top of this building meant that I walked around photographing it from many angles, trying to include as few tourists as I could. The above image is my favourite showing the whole temple.
There are many Buddist temples in Bangkok and at many of the most famous ones I have found these golden stupa (locally known as cheri). When the name is translated it literally means “heap” and a stupa contains Buddhist relics. With the full name of Wat Saket Ratcha Wore Maha Wihan (they like their long names here in Thailand), this temple on the top of a hill in the city dates back to the 18th century, but it was built on soft ground so it had to be rebuild years later.
This is a detail of the Buddhist temple at the Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery near Lockerbie, just across the border into Scotland. I know, this isn’t something I expected to see in Scotland, but it was an excellent and extremely peaceful place to stop for a break from driving on our journey up to Edinburgh. Taken in the summer of 2005 it seems like a very long time since the above image was captured.