AWalkaboutTalad Noi by Michael Greenwald

Sitting on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, the old Chinese community of Talad Noi in dates back to the early period after the destruction of the capitol, Ayuthya in the late 18th century. It is located between Chinatown and and the river. Although it is eclipsed by the more flambouyant Chinatown, Talad Noi offers a much quieter life and is the “Greenwich Village” of Bangkok, where many artists and writers live.

One of the unique qualities of Talad Noi is that there is very little graffiti, and numerous artists have been invited to decorate the walls with some of the most innovatibe art I have seen.

It is a constant amazement to find ice cream vendors pushing hand carts like this, selling home-made coconut ice cream, made by mixing coconiut cream, canned sweetened milk in a mould frozen with a mixture of ice and salt, like in days gone bye.

Jo Shu Kong Chinese Buddhist tem-ple was built about 200 years ago during the era of King IV

A sacred site for Hokkien peo-ple. Depicted is a black Asian

Buddha.

This temple has many shrines in it, so apple stocked up on incense so she could leave three sticks of it at each

shrine

Dragons of power guard the pillars of this 200-year old Chi-nese Buddhist temple, which have many mythical di-eties taken mainlyn from the Hindu religion.

After the death of Bud-ha, buddhism was very pure and the only symbols al-lowed in the wats was a cir-cle, symboliz-ing the wheel of life.

But the poor needed more symbolim, so gradually the serpants, demonds and mythical birds of the older Hin-du religion eneterd Thai buddhism

Hotei. One of Seven Lucky Gods. Also known as the “laughing Buddha” with the Big Belly. Hotei symbolizes the god of pros-perity and his followers usually rub his belly or paste small pieces of gold to it as an offering.

The tree on the right is a sacred tree in which It is believed spirits dwell. The tiny house in front of it is a “spirit house” and the people who live near the tree give alms to the spirits in the belief that the spirits are upset because the natural state of the land was upset by the buildings put upon it. Every house, building and condo in Thi-land has a spirit house as well as a Buddha house.

Alms are usually in the form of fruit, rice or drink, which in other places is just left for a symboic few mintes but in Thailand it sits there all day. On the day of the Big Bud-dha (which happens to be today), people of-ten put out special treats, like whiskry and flowers.

The building in the background is a Portugese catholic church, built in the mid 19th century. Thialand has complete fredom of religion and one finds religious buildings of every faith and unlike many places the religions all get along, except we have had a viscious Muslim uprising in the south that kills about 1,600 people every year.

About 200 years ago Thailand annexed a Muslim state in the south and the terrorists believe that once land is Muslim it must remain Muslim forever.

I have been in Thailand for 19 years and married to Apple for 16. It is never easy fitting into anoth-er culture but since I have no family of my own I have adopted Apple’s family and by helping them, I have come to be acccpeted by them.

America is a great country but it does not provide much opportunity unless you have lots of money. By contrast, Thailand is the real land of opportu-nity and we have prospered. Every day I thank my-self for coming to live here.

--Michael