2555 - entering Nirvana

Lost in history ... but let me start first with today's topic: Happy Birthday, Ryuko!

I think it is wonderful how our brain is capable creating links that are not obvious, and probably, nor pop-up to make sense. At least you are present at my journey around-the-world, as you were in person during my previous two trips some 20 years ago.

25/55. Congratulations, today (25) you caught up with me (55). Eventually the figure jumped into my eyes while watching local news. With absolutely no understanding of the beautiful drawings of Thai language, it was the date that caused some irritation, or better said, that provoked my curiousity. And while taking some notes on historical dates surrounding my visits to the ancient ruins of Wat Phou (Laos) and Ayutthaya (Thailand) for this post, I stumbled also over the fact that Thais use both the Western Gregorian and a Buddhist calendar - the latter based on the year 543BC, the year Buddha entered Nirvana. What a nice coincidence Ryuko, on the basis of the Thai solar calender the you are born on the 25th in the year 2500.

And though we share since today the age of 55, I have some funny numbers too this year: Born in 56 to become 56, meaning soon I will be again a year ahead ; )

Walking yesterday between the new and old parts of Ayutthaya, a city that had some 350 years ago about twice the inhabitants of London at that time, gave me a wonderful oportunity to read more about the past along the mighty Mekong river, that has seen the rise and fall of the kingdoms and dynastis of Khmer, Siam, Champa, and Burmese.

Interesting to compare that the Khmer mountain monestary of Wat Phou, build nearly 1000 years before the capital of the Sukhothai kingdom, was made of stone blocks, whereas the remains of Ayutthaya - ravaged by the Burmese and left to the jungle in 1767 - are basically composed of red bricks. It is difficult to imagine that by 1685 about one million people lived in Ayutthaya, living largely on houseboats in a 140-kilometer network of waterways.

At such an ancient place I didn't have much choice to select a birthday present : a small carved image of Buddha at Viharn Phra Mongkol Bopit - home of a powerfully austere bronze statute with its flashing mother-of-pearl eyes. Worshipers place these days gold foils on the various surrounding replicas in the temple.

Links to my pictures travelling from Wat Phou (Laos) to Ayutthaya (Thailand):
Ayutthaya - 350 years ago twice as big as London
Ayutthaya: a shadow of its past
By train from Ubon Ratchatani to Ayutthaya