A Visit to the Emerald Buddha Temple

Sawatdee! It's our first day here and we are all still a bit jet lagged but keeping it moving. Today we got an X-file first thing in the morning that gave us a map of Bangkok and money for transportation, our destination; The Grand Palace, most famously known for The Temple of the Emerald Buddha. After a short train and boat ride we got to this huge place with about 20 buildings in a 4 block radius from what I could tell. Every square inch of the inside walls of the buildings and temples were hand painted from top to bottom, every temple was painted in gold or covered in crystals or other designs and there were too many statues to even begin to count and to know that everything had a meaning and an order made it very clear just how important this was to all believers of this faith and how engraved this faith was in the culture and everyday life of someone who lives here. Even more impressive was that about 2 blocks from this place was another one of these grounds which houses the Reclining Buddha and it has just about as many, if not more, statues and temples then the first. There are no words or pictures that could even begin to describe the size and scale of this statue. I could only guess that its about half a football field long and with as many details as everything else in this place. This Xperience was the complete opposite of what we were about to see. After recharging a bit, we went to a night market that is set to take over 2 streets at night time. As we walked through we quickly realized that the place that sold all kinds of things for people of all ages was also offering something else in bright neon signs and very graphic words and pictures - women were also selling their bodies. Time and time again different team members were shown graphic catalogs, propositioned, and sometimes harassed to take advantage of what was being offered by men and women alike. There were at least 20 places all cramped into the 2 blocks we walked and I am sure there were many more if we would've kept walking. We couldn't ignore it, couldn't move away from it, and had no choice but to confront the situation in front of us. It is unfortunate to see things like this here but this situation is not foreign to to us, we know these places exist closer than we may even want to admit only not as bluntly advertised (trust me, when I say not even close!) as it is here. Which made me think, what are we doing about it? Are we ignoring it because it is "disgusting"? Are we oblivious to the fact that they exist? What about the people involved? Are we recognizing them as people? Are we Xtending our hands to tell them they are loved and valuable regardless of the situation and without any judgment? We really must open our eyes to the things happening around us, its time we stop ignoring the difficult things and really look.


Sawatdee! Es nuetro primer dia aqui y aunque estamos ajustandonos al cambio de hora seguimos adelante. Hoy recibimos un X-file que consistia en un mapa de Bangkok y dinero para transportacion, nuestro destino, El Gran Palacio mejor conocido como el Templo del Buda de Esmeralda. Luego de una corta traversia en tren y un viaje en bote llegamos a este enorme palacio que contiene al rededor de 20 edificios en un radio de 4 bloques segun lo que pude ver. Cada centimetro cuadrado en el interior de las paredes de los edificios y templos eran pintados a mano desde el techo hasta el piso, cada templo estaba pintado en oro o cubierto con cristales u otros disenos y tambien habian demasiadas estatuas como para contarlas y saber que todo simbolizaba algo y todo tenia un orden especifico. A leguas se ve lo importante que es esta religion para sus creyentes y lo afiansada que esta fe esta presente en la cultura y el diario vivir. Aun mas impresionante, como a dos bloques de este lugar estan los predios que contienen al Buda Reclinado y casi la misma cantidad, sino mas, estatuas y templos que el primer lugar. No hay palabras ni fotos que puedan si quiera comenzar a describir el tamano y escala de esta estatua. Solo puedo adivinar que el tamano es la mitad de un parque de futbol y con misma cantidad de detalles como todo en el lugar. Esta esperiencia es completamente opuesta a lo que ibamos a ver proximamente. Luego de recargarnos un poco, fuimos al mercado norcturno que es un espacio que toma al rededor de 2 carreteras. Segun ibamos caminando rapidamente nos dimos cuenta de que en el lugar se vendia todo tipo de cosas de todas las edades y que tambien se ofrecia algo mas es brillantes carteles de neon en carteles de neon y tambien palabras y dibujos muy graficos, tambien habian mujeres vendiendo sus cuerpos. En varias ocasiones a diferentes miembros del equipo se les ensenaba catalogos muy graficos, y en ocasiones eran acosados para que aprovecharan lo que se les estaba ofreciendo por hombres y mujeres. Habia al menos 20 lugares todos amontonados en los 2 bloques que caminamos y estoy segura que hubiesemos visto mas si hubiesemos seguido caminando. No podiamos ignorarlos, no podiamos alejarnos, no teniamos otra opcion que enfrentar la situcion que estaba frente a nosotros. Es muy desafortunado ver cosas como estas aqui, pero esta situacion no es extrana a nosotros, conocemos que estos lugares existen mucho las cerca de lo que quisieramos admitir quizas no tan abiertamente mercadeado (creanme cuando digo que ni siquiera se acerca) como lo es aqui. Esto me hizo pensar, que estamos haciendo al respecto? lo vamos a ignorar porque nos desagrada? estamos ignorando el hecho de que esto exista? Que hay de aquellas personas envultas, las estamos reconociendo como personas? Estamos xtendiendo nuestras manos hacia ellos diciendole que ellos son amados y valorados no importa su situacion y sin juzgarlos? realmente debemos abrir nuestros ojos a las cosas que ocuran a nuestro alrededor, es tiempo de que dejemos de ignorar las cosa que son dificiles de ver y realmente observar.

NOTA: Disculpen errores ortograficos lo que sucede es que el programa que estamos usando no tiene las herramientas necesarias para editar un texto en espanol.