The Buddhist Temple
Travel to the sacred Buddhist temples of Thailand
This photo (figure 3) captures golden statues at a Buddhist temple, taken in Thailand in 1987. The photo gives off an eeriness feeling when one stares at the four golden statues. The photo is four golden statues of Buddhist local gods and female deities sitting in a peaceful position at a Buddhist temple, nothing overly exciting. Nevertheless, the longer one spends on this photo; the mind starts to interpret the meaning behind the four statues placed together. Is there a significance between the local gods and female deities? Are these gods and deities representing a specific element, such as death, or did these gods and deities bring peace to what could have been hell? Another religious-focused photograph in this collection in Figure 4 is more statues relating to Buddhism, but ceramic statues. Instead of a mix of local gods and female deities, it is local gods.
Figure 3
However, when people think about the history and background of religions, there are spiritual aspects, but there are grim aspects. Even though, when looking into history and background of certain events, the aura of not knowing the complete story of the past will always give the unknown haunting lingering feel in the present time. As Keller (2015) states, the haunting feeling is not only about the past in the present or about how the present is indebted to the past, but it does become a question of how to act in the present in a way that compliments history as something that lives, pervades, and experience throughout time (p 8). The gods and deities’ true stories might not be known, but they are put in a place of worship because they represent something significant.
Figure 4