#  >  > Thailand Festivals, Beaches, Scuba Diving and Temples, Tell us Your Tales >  >  > Thailands Wats Temples and Mosques >  >  Buddha flowers for luck, the garlands

## dirtydog

So your going to visit the local Temple and impress the natives, first  off the word "Temple" in Thai is of course "Wat", so now your going to  need to learn to wai  and find your lowly position in life, and it is low, barely scraping  past Soi dog, it hasn't yet been decided if farangs are above pedigree  dogs, but we could well be, perhaps not the dogs with black fur though  as they are highly sort after and supposedly the best dog meat money can buy, where as we are just kee nok.



With the high temperatures in Thailand and the heat in the local markets  the flowers are kept on ice to keep them fresh, wouldn't take long for  them to start wilting in this heat and you can't just give Buddha any  old tatty flowers.



These small bunches of flowers cost between 10 baht and 20 baht each,  when you consider the labour, the transport costs etc they are quite a  bargain. Probably worth buying one for your car also, you will find  sellers at many of Thailands main roads at intersections with traffic  lights, these will protect you from accidents, supposedly, just hang it  on the rear view mirror and hope it doesn't obscure your vision too much   :Smile: 

Pink roses for King Rama V, supposedly his favourite flower, although he  generally would be offered pink roses by themselves rather than a mixed  garland, I doubt he minds too much though.



Carnations add some nice colour to these garlands, the jasmine of course  adds the lovely smell, but beware, these flowers are for Buddha, it is  said if you sniff Buddhas flowers something bad will happen to your nose  in the next life, so show his flowers the respect they deserve big  nose, or would it be little snubbed nose Isaan-ite?



So it's time to offer Buddha your flowers, it is probably a good idea  for you to practise this in front of a mirror before embarking on the  Wai Buddha and present garland quest, really isn't anything more  ridiculous looking than some gawky farang trying to look gracious whilst  scrunched up on the floor, his legs bent into un-natural positions,  worrying where his feet are pointing, trying to keep balance whilst  bowing down with the flowers clasped between his hands and wondering how  stupid he really does look in front of the locals who have been doing  this all their lives, so get the mirror out and practise first, because  we will laugh at you if we see you and your doing it all wrong.

First off, your feet, you don't want these pointing at Buddha nor  anybody else, yep, an almost impossible task, so ignore everything  behind you and just make sure about Buddha, he has the bolts of  lightening, on your knees and crawl towards the Buddha image you will be  hanging your garland from, clasp the garland between your 2 hands with  them in a praying position, now the fun bit, bow down 3 times, yep show  Buddha those wai's you have been practising, just make sure you don't  look like a right twat doing it, 3 wai's then gracefully hang the  garland on Buddha, now slowly edge away from him, at this stage you can  do another wai, up to you as they say, odds are your sweating like a  pig, your knees hurt and you just want to get out of there, anyway,  congratulations on your Wai Phra (Making a Buddhist Offering) and we hope your prays are answered.

Forgot the most important bit, when wai ing him you can ask for favours,  better sex life, more money, win the lottery, anything like that, he  seems pretty open minded and avarice isn't a bad thing to his mind.

Next weeks lesson on Thailand and Buddhism will concentrate on the Thai lotus, the water plant, not the car or supermarket.

Wai Phra or Making a Buddhist Offering
The Thai Lotus
Making Merit Photos

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