The Reclining Buddha Temple was really cool. All temples require you take your shoes off, so bare feet or stocking feet only. When I first walked in I could hear a cling-cling noise. These are 108 bowls that people drop small token coins into. You can buy a bowl of coins for 20 Baht (donation to the temple) and walk down the line and drop coins into these metal bowls. Why 108?
Buddha--was a real man, just like Jesus Christ. Buddha was alive 543 years prior to Jesus Christ. Our Christian Calendar is 2007 this year bc our dates start at 0, when Jesus was born, that's why the dates prior to Jesus are B.C. So the Buddhist calendar is 2550 this year (not 2007) bc Buddha is 543 years older than Jesus.
Buddha was the son of the King of India. He lived the life of luxury and left that life to travel. He discovered there was so much pain and suffering in the world, he wanted to know the cause of this. What he discovered is that pain and suffering is caused by passion and illusion. He dedicated his life to trying to find Nirvana and stop the suffering. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, Buddha is said to have 108 lives, therefore, 108 bowls in the temple. During these lives, he tried to experience different types of hardship in order to learn. (I think.) If anyone who is reading this and knows more about Buddhism, I apologize, some things may have gotten lost in translation.....Reaching Nirvana means one is not reborn again and stops all suffering. Dropping coins into these bowls I think is similar to how Jesus died for our sins, Buddha lived our suffering, so prayers are said in addition to the act of doing this.
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