Thai cats in the Buddhist Temple Culture of Thai cats in Buddhist temples. Wat Thong Noppakhun (Photo essay) To approach a temple, one must start with the Abbot (Jao Awat), which involves kneeling to him in his seat. I needed to ask for the TV camera to be allowed to shoot the mural in his main chapel, a building which assumed its present form in the early 19th century. While waiting, when talking about cats to local laypeople at the temple, one pointed me to an old manuscript cabinet. He said there was a cat book inside, maybe, but at that moment, none dared open the cabinet. It required the attentions of manuscript experts from the Fine Arts Department, but none was available right now. Finally the Abbot arrived, and was the most genial of hosts. We talked about the mural, and our ETA to film it, we talked about cats and I gave him my book, and then he kept talking about monks house number eight. Quarters for celibate monks, or kuti, are organized in various ways in different temples, and Wat Thong, as common for a largish city monastery, has a structured arrangement of several large C shaped buildings on 2 floors with a court yard, each assigned to a group of monks or Khana, with accommodation for maybe 15 monks. So what was going on at Khana Paed (house number 8)? And where was it? Read more: pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/cats/temple.html
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:36:40 +0000