Ancient Sites and Sacred Animals
On my 3rd night, I stopped by a nice Thai shop for some bomb curry. And by bomb, I mean FIRE. Dude is like, "How spicy? 1 to 5?" and I'm like yo in America we go 1 to 10 but that's cool. "How do you eat it?" And he said "I take it 4: Thai spicy." And I'm like dude in America Thai spicy is the top of the scale. "Does anyone ever order 5?" "No, 5 is forbidden." Huhhh??? "I'll take 4." It was so good. And so hot. I was at my limit. I exceeded my limit when I munched on a piece of Thai chili. So good. So fire. My stomach burned the rest of the night. The next morning, the burning had moved further down to my guts. An unpleasant way to start the day of a trip to Ayutthaya. And I regret NOTHING.
Bangkok to Ayutthaya is a couple hours by train, for now. ASEAN is working with China to build high speed railways throughout the region. This is amazing! Someday, one could travel between Kunming in Yunnan, China, through Vientiane, Laos, to Bangkok and even Singapore using high speed trains. This is important because, as I realized while planning, it's not very convenient to get to Vientiane. I bet you that once this railway is operational, that city will see a surge of growth.
The Ramayana is a big piece of Indian culture that prevails throughout southeast Asia. In Thailand, it's known as Ramakien. Rama's home Ayodhya inspired the river city Ayutthaya, historic capital of the eponymous kingdom from 1351 to 1767. It's a hotbed of tourist activity due to its ruins, attracting foreigners and domestic tourists, alike. The kingdom had skilled masons, as there are loads of brick stupas.
I don't know much about Thailand's history, so mostly I just walked around the historical park, snapping photos of ruined buildings and local wildlife.
I think much of the destruction happened in 1767, when the Burmese army destroyed the city. They even decapitated many Buddha statues in what I imagine was more demoralizing desecration than iconoclasty.
Photos of historical and cultural sites are cool, I guess. But the city has a really nice park.
With lots of egrets.
I really dig these little passerine birds. Based on how they walk and talk and socialize, I expected them to be corvids. Nope, they're starlings called mynas. They make so many distinct sounds and superficially resemble mockingbirds, which I thought could be another relation. Nope, they're just starlings. Pretty ones though!
I saw something that made me really sad!
So I'll divert from the tourist photos into a little rant.
Elephants are culturally important in Thailand and other regional cultures. As an Indian and a biology enthusiast, it's hard for me to imagine a more sacred animal. And yet, these animals are also economically important in Thailand. Why? Because they attract tourists who spend money and stimulate the economy? This is capitalism going too far.
Every culture has its sacred animals. Western cultures sanctify dogs. I don't really understand it, but in my conversations with other Americans, they consistently express a view that dogs are somehow special. They become outraged when Asian people eat dogs. Then they eat cow for dinner. It makes no sense. I mean, you can make sense of it, arguing that there are historic relationships between dogs and humans, that the mutualism between the two species allowed them both to expand and dominate the globe. Cats, too. The reason it doesn't make sense to me is that it seems based on occidental egotism, this idea that all non-human animals were created by God to serve man. This is how people treat animals like things instead of lives. So a dog is a member of your family but a cow is a thing for dinner. The distinction is so arbitrary. In another part of the world, a cow is a member of your community. Is one right and the other wrong? It's pointless to argue. I think there's merit in saying that all life is sacred.
How does an animal become sacred? Start by considering which animals are sacred and where.
Many domesticated animals are respected mainly for their utility. Cows can work as beasts of burden, or they can provide bounty through dairy and feces. I can't speak from personal experience, but I imagine that the people who work with these animals grow to respect them and appreciate them for more than the services the animals provide humans. The animals exhibit intelligence of a different flavor from our own. They realize peace and understanding and demonstrate kindness and empathy. It's not anthropomorphism when you consider how similar we are to other species. Domesticated animals like dogs and American cattle are bred for certain qualities, and intelligence is certainly not one of them. So they differ from what I consider higher-level sacred animals.
By that, I mean wild animals, creatures that offer no service to man beyond inspiring awe. Ancient people grew to worship animals for qualities to which today we're blind. Consider how many decades of scientific research, including fieldwork, builds our understanding of wild animals. Now consider that ancient people had none of the resources that scientists have today. All they did was coexist with these creatures. They observed nature to understand how these animals fit into their ecosystems. They respected top predators like big cats, bears, and killer whales. They understood the remarkable intelligence of elephants, ravens, condors, and llamas. To name a few.
The point I'm making is that ancient people had such a close relationship with nature that they understood wild animals not as mere living "things" but as beings of depth with which we share the world. Today, there are so many humans on the planet. Science helps us understand our animal neighbors, but we may never again experience closeness with their kind. Especially if we kill them all!
That's my rant. I'll dump more pics now, much from my morning stroll through Lumphini Park. It didn't rain this time, so I saw not only jungle crows but monitor lizards, too!
