This old temple by the river Chao Phraya has become my weekly favourite haunt as I had to feed several stray cats and kittens there. Most of the time I wouldn’t have the time for a leisurely walk around the temple because as soon as one of the cats saw me, he would alert all other cats to come running towards me. Then, they would be crying out for food, they would follow me everywhere and I often tripped one of those cats or stepped on one accidentally. So, I had to arrive at different time of the day at the temple and walked differently so that those cats could not identify my footstep.
One day I decided to get to the temple early in the afternoon so that I could have some quiet time. The temple staff was in the middle of organising and decorating the place for some festival the following day. So, the atmosphere became very lively and cheerful for a change. Several halls have been opened to the public after the long lockdown. Things seemed to slowly becoming as usual routines of the past. There were many local people volunteering to assist all temple activities. Some have been working for over ten years at this temple.
I did some prayers to Buddha statues and talked a lady staff. I wondered if I could but some left over sand for the cats. She was puzzled by my request; so I told her that cats were making a mess around the monk’s residence as they had no garden or places for their toilet. So, I bought two bucket full of sand for these stray cats. I didn’t know that sand could be so heavy. It took me ages to carry one bucket at a time to the small patch of garden by the wall.
These cats were quite curious and scared by the bucket of sand at first. Two buckets provided enough sand for that small area. Later I observed some cats enjoyed digging the sand and sniffing around the pile of sand. I was thinking of getting more sand but I had to search for a building site nearby that would donate some buckets of sand for temple cats. Meanwhile, I just had to feed these cats as they had came out of their hiding places.
Yannawa temple was originally a dilapidated and small temple existed since the end of Ayutthaya era. This temple had seen substantial construction and renovation during the reign of King Rama III who was very successful in international trade with Chinese merchants and created a booming economy and prosperity in Siam. But most people didn’t learn about our interesting history in schools or from textbooks. Fortunately I did stumbled on good books and rare sources of historical information and had the opportunity to have conversations with older people who were a part of important historical events. Knowledge is also ephemeral and so it will disappear according to changing world and dynamic nature of time.
Sometimes I wondered what would become of Bangkok and all her beautiful temples if one day there was a giant storm surge as a result of few eruptions of volcanoes under the sea. Perhaps that scenario was high unlikely as those undersea volcanoes were very far away and other countries would probably absorb all the severe impact initially. Then I heard about the possibility of meteorites hitting the earth in the future. This gave me some concern about the unpredictable locations of impact and the severity of damages. In this case, the possibility of having meteorites hitting the earth couldn’t be underestimated as small ones were regularly passing by earth every year! This thought reminded me of the uncertain nature of reality and life. As we couldn’t foresee what would happen in the future, it’s better to live in the present and enjoy every moment so we wouldn’t have any regret for not having lived fully before departing to another realm.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.