Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, July 31st, 2012
One day a few months ago my dad noticed a car broken down in our neighbor’s driveway. Upon further inspection he realized they were a group of monks in traditional orange robes. None of them spoke English but there was a lady driving them around who had been in the US for a few years so she could speak some English. What my dad got, between the broken English and the frantic gestures, is that they were on their way to a temple just a few minutes away. Later, he forgot all about it.
Wat Dhammasala in Perry, MI
When Sharon and I arrived last month we were talking about monks and it jogged his memory… oh yeah! There’s a Buddhist temple just down the road. I checked it out several times without seeing a living soul in the vicinity but was blown away by how authentic it was. Today I went back for the fourth time and was able to meet the monks, speak Thai with them and get the calendar for the next few weeks.
If you live in the mid-Michigan area and would like to see the temple with me I’ll be glad to take you and show you a Buddhist ceremony this Saturday, August 4th at 10:00 AM. It’s the khao pansa ceremony that celebrates the traditional entering of the rain retreats in Thailand or “Buddhist Lent.”
Call me at 517-203-9511 and I’ll give you directions.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
I really have no idea what’s going on in this video. I submit it as an example of one of the many things that happens at Chinese-Thai style temples in Thailand. I was told by someone I showed the video to that it has to do with the “San Jaow” or the guardian spirit and his spirit house following Chinese customs. If you do not see the video embedded below click here to see it on YouTube.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Loi Krathong (sometimes referred to as the “Festival of Lights”) here in Chiang Mai is a sight to behold. There’s more culture in town this time of year than you can shake a stick at. On the agenda are several things that people who saw last year’s pictures will remember: releasing thousands of lanterns into the sky, floating small boats down the river and cultural parades. The only difference is that this year we can speak some Thai, know what’s going on and we know where the good parking spots are. The slightly better camera helps too. Check out the photos so far embedded below or on our Picasa web albums.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, July 10th, 2011
New pictures of our latest adventures can be found on our Picasa Web Albums and a few examples are embedded below on our website. We went up Doi Suthep, a mountain near our house, with friends and we decided to pay ten dollars for the tour at the palace on top. The tour guide wanted to be our dedicated photographer so that worked out great. Normally there wouldn’t be so many pictures of us in here.
Below are some samples. Click the picture to see it in a larger format.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Monday, June 20th, 2011
The Chedi
Where we put things speaks to our character. Think about where you sleep. What do you keep closest to you while you rest and what do you grab first when you wake up? One of your values may be punctuality if your answer to that question is an alarm clock. If it’s a cell phone maybe something you value is connectivity.
Today when I went to a local temple to map the grounds I was looking for patterns, symmetry and organization but I was trying to look deeper than that too, at things below the surface. Outward behavior is a manifestation of our core beliefs, our “worldview”. I saw a lot of evidence of underlying core values while doing this exercise.
Below my crude hand-drawn map I have placed a gallery of images with the Thai name, an English approximate and a brief description of each building’s use. Each photo was taken while walking around the temple grounds in clock-wise order with the central building last. (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, May 22nd, 2011
Every village has a Buddhist temple
The first months of any new job you feel clueless. Sometimes you wander in circles until some really nice person who’s worked at the company for years puts their arm around you and tells you how it’s done. Those guys are few and far between in the job we do.
Fortunately we work in an organization with people all over Thailand doing the job day in and day out. This weekend we had the privilege to go watch one of our teams in action and it blew us away. They didn’t put their arm around us and tell us how things are done. They showed us by doing it well. Here’s the story in pictures.(more…)
Signs cover nearly every square inch of available space in Thailand (like they do in many countries). With all the noise sometimes it’s hard to notice just one of them let alone read it as we’re driving by so today I spent an hour taking pictures of signs. Weird huh?
When I got home and started reading them I found some fabulous gems to share. The one on the right is a classic example. These little yellow signs are stuck high on telephone poles all over Thailand with short Christian messages that almost seem designed to purposely confuse people. I’m sure they were put there with the best of intentions as were the thousands of other signs in this city. (more…)
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Saturday, March 19th, 2011
We’ve created a new video showing you more of the activities that take place at the local temples. To get this footage we had to drive up Doi Suthep, a mountain near Chiang Mai and then climb hundreds of steps to the temple. The earlier you get up there there better so we left at 7:00 AM. See it at our website or on youtube.
Posted by Ric and Sharon on Sunday, December 26th, 2010
Sharon and I have a week off language learning for the holidays!!! Which means more time to post on the blog and see more of the beautiful city we’ve been living in. Today I visited several temples around the city and took pictures of anything that seemed interesting. Check out all of them at our Picasa web albums and a few samples here:
Check out all the pictures at Picasa web albums and check back every day this week to see more pictures.
Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
Loi Krathong (sometimes referred to as the “Festival of Lights”) here in Chiang Mai is a sight to behold. There’s more culture in town this time of year than you can shake a stick at. On the agenda are several things that people who saw 
