วัดโบสถ์ | ค่ายสุรธรรมพิทักษ์ | A Day at a Thai Temple

My late father in-law had a birthday recently, so the family got together with friends for a merit-making mission over at the camp's temple, known as Wat Bod. We had food catered and even made some on the scene, and donated robes, supplies, and money to the temple. 

The Buddhism branch that is practiced here is of the Theravada, or Theravadin flavor...as such, the chanting is all done in Pali - the language in which the Tripitaka was compiled in Sri Lanka many, many years ago. I did some perusing of the chanting books...which we could call hymnals (somewhat similar, yet different) in church back home. These books (and memorization) can keep people on track throughout the recitation, and the text is Thai. Could you imagine going to church as a kid in the states...and having to recite everything in Latin? Well, I guess in this hypothetical comparison it would be read as a transliterated Latin (into English). Is that how Catholics do it? Honest question...I just don't know (grew up in a very Southern Baptist kinda place).

Once we had fed the monks, made our offerings, and received the dhamma, I took a stroll around the temple...come along for a bit of history. Throughout the Vietnam conflict era, Korat was home to many US servicemen. This temple had a building that served as a Catholic church up until the late seventies (I believe). Once the US presence diminished, so went the Catholic use of this building, and it was redesigned as a meditation area.