Travel Photographer - Dr. Jeff Harper Photo Blog

The entrance to the temple grounds was a thing of beauty filled with spiritual promise.

My wife (Yoo), brother-in-law (Vichai), and niece (Par) and I went to Saraburi province today to make merit.

We participated in ceremonies and left donations.

There was much beauty everywhere we went. The smell of incense filled the air.

It was a day reflecting on what the Buddha said: wake up.

Who designs these cave temples? Fantastic!

The entrance to the underground temple.

One can partake of Chinese numerology cards in the underground temple.

The underground temple had some wonderful Buddhas.

It was cool inside the cave.

It is such a surprise to find Buddas in a cave.

The cave extended quite a distance under the cliff.

Down and around we went.

It seemed around every turn a new Buddha grotto could be found.

Someone is tending all of these subterranean altars.

Yes. The someone is a "cave hermit" and this is an alter to him.

This is the only underground Chedi I have ever seen . . . . and I have been in many underground and cave Buddhist temples.

Some of the Buddha altars were quite spooky.

Even though it was a hot day, fan sales were slow in the temple courtyard.

As this was a special day for worshiping, merchants set up a makeshift markets outside the temple gates.

Beans, lentils, and split peas are in season.

There is nothing like Thai Chinese Temple Roastin' Ears (TCTRE) on a 100 degree day. Trust me.

The most moving part of the day was passing out alms to the aged indigent poor of the area. It was humbling and heart-rendering.

Update on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 9:36PM by

Dr. Jeff Harper

Last Saturday's trip to Saraburi with my family included several Buddhist Temples (wats), both Thai and Chinese/Thai. Here are a few more images from that wonderful day.

Our first temple of the day was a Thai Buddhist Wat that had a stone Buddha "footprint." Pilgrims would set money on the "footprint" for good luck. The room had a mirrored ceiling. Great idea.

Another temple building had Buddhas that you "dressed" in sashes and gold leaf. I dressed one and was thrilled in the process.

Fantastical dressed Buddhas.

I couldn't choose between these three dressed Buddha photos, so I included all three here.

The temple buildings were beautiful and . . . .

. . . opulent beyond belief.

The largest Wat structure held the largest Buddha.

The extensive Temple grounds had many traditional Thai wat structures.

The third temple of the day was a traditional Chinese Buddhist Temple . . of austere beauty.

Beautiful spiritual architecture.

All the elements for a spiritual pilgrimage were present.

The interior of the Chinese temple was thick with incense and mystery.

Altars within the temples speak of timelessness.

Not everything one finds in a temple is positive. This man sets birds free, for a fee. You give him money so you can have the good feeling, and added good gamma of freeing a bird. Gamma ascription can be a complex thing, but this is simple: it is wrong. Unfortunately this practice leads to the netting and trapping of birds which inevitably leads to the killing of many birds in the process. I told this guy to go away. He didn't like me telling him that.