Number 41

If you EVER have the opportunity to see a major Buddhist temple burn their head monk you MUST go. It may not be the most amazing thing I've ever seen, but it is definitely top 5. Wow. I truly do not have the words to describe it, but I'll try. You really need to check out the photos to get the flavor of this posting. I posted some photos of it on the inbox.com site but they are nothing. Andrew, Wendy's husband took some amazing shots and I'll post them as soon as I get them. I have NEVER seen anything quite like this.

Wendy, Andrew, Ei Ei and I ended up at the ceremony this afternoon. We heard from some monks that it was going to be at 1pm. The ceremony lasted for over 3 hours. It was hot and when the clouds weren't covering the sun it was sunny. You're supposed to wear black but the only black shirt I have with me is my long sleeve Gopher Hockey shirt. (I was going to go to hockey night in Hanoi though I never made it) So if you see me in a few photos, I'm the guy at the funeral wearing the Gopher shirt.

We had pretty good seats and kids were going around handing out free water to drink and flowers to throw on the pyre. The "pyre" was large, ornate, colorful and what had appeared to be an elephant with a moving trunk and ears. We were told it wasn't and elephant but it sure looked like one to me. You have to see the photos. Anyway, way too many city officials and other Government types dressed in white army type uniforms all spoke. No monks spoke at all. The Wat (Temple) has some connection with the King so this was no ordinary service and burning. After all the speeches, everyone went up and threw flowers on the pyre so Wendy and I did too.

Then everyone left. No fire. Turns out the burning would be at 8pm so we sat through 3 hot hours of speeches for nothing. But it was cool to watch and no one was upset. We were all coming back to watch, so I went back to the house and started packing for Laos and for the trip home.

We went back about 7:15 and got good seats near the front. The front was about 100 feet from the "action". There was some excellent classic monk chanting and then there was a band with one of those guys who plays the cobra out of the basket with a weird sounding horn leading it. Then all the monks who had been seated together on the side got up and started moving forward. Everyone else started moving forward and we got to within about 5o feet of the pyre.

And then all hell broke loose. Fireworks went off overhead a ball of fire came from the side and headed for the pyre. It circled the whole thing and looked like someone had shot off a rocket that was going sideways into the crowd. Turns out it was on a wire and hit the elephant setting it on fire. In each corner a tower with about a dozen red, blue, green and orange giant sparklers went off. In front of the whole thing about 6-7 huge pinwheels of fire exploded. It was incredible. People surged forward and the whole thing was ablaze. The band picked up the pace and the flames climbed up the structure. The fire brigade was hosing down different sections to try to contain the fire. The four corner towers caught on fire. The top of the whole thing started to collapse. When it fell there was no holding back the people and the place was mobbed with people taking pictures, climbing on the the parts that weren't burning yet and meanwhile the sky is raining ash and burning embers. And the band played on. Meanwhile, inside the ship the monk was rising to heaven with the smoke and ash. Then the popping started. Bones exploding as the moisture in them was boiled. It lasted a few minutes and was the frosting on the cake.

The pageantry, the fireworks, the music, the people and the monk burning inside came together to totally blow me away. I just kept shaking my head and taking bad pictures. I saw Ronnie and we just looked at each other with huge grins on our faces. This guy standing next to me said, with a heavy British accent, that it was quite interesting and I told him we don't burn people like this where I come from. It was the damnedest thing I'd seen in a long time. When the fire finally started to burn itself out you could see inside the ship and sure enough the monk was gone. I don't know what else to say.

An amazing night in Chiang Mai. One I will never forget.