Temples are important for Buddhists. It’s the place where we gather to make merit or do meditation. The three important elements of Buddhism; Buddha (statues), Dhama, Monks, are at the temples as well.
When I was a child, I usually went with my mother to the temples for making merit; we offered food to the monks and listened to their praying and their teaching of the dharma.
After making merit, we believe that we will have a happy life for now and after death and our beloved ones who already passed away will get happy life in their world, too.
The Festival of the Tenth Lunar Month is one of the important Buddhist days. It’s the unique festival of the South of Thailand.
We make desserts especially for this festival and decorated them beautifully on the plate or bowl and offer them to the monks, as below sample.
I love these desserts, they are so delicious.
In the temples, apart from magnificent buildings, you will see many beautiful “Bua” in the graveyard.
The “Bua” is the statue where we keep the ashes of our ancestors, so we can worship them at any time, especially on the important Buddhist days.
The shape of the "Bua" looks like a small chedi (or pagoda). Each "Bua" has a good design and beautiful decoration.
(The name, "Bua", is in the Thai language, I don't know its name in English.)
The white one is the “Bua” of my beloved father and my beloved brother.
We worship them with beautiful garlands, magnificent flowers, and offer them some food and water. (the same way as we do for the Buddha statue or for the monks)
We believe that they can touch these and know how much we love them…
We wish they stay in peace together in their world now.