My buddy Tom from Isaan-Live.com has spent most of February in Udon Thani at Wat Pa Baan Tad observing and taking lots of photos of all the Buddhist devotees that are stopping by to pay their respects to Luangta Maha Bua.
Luangta Maha Bua passed away at age 97 last month and the funeral will be held on 5 March 2011. However, thousands of Buddhist monks and tens of thousands of Thais have been visiting the temple all month.
Tents have been erected, trams have been set up to shuttle people, and the food – the food to feed all of these people is coming strictly from donations. People have been coming from all over Thailand and many from other countries to pay homage to Luangta Maha Bua.
And then there are the temple ladies. Without them, no temple in Thailand could survive. These ladies clean, cook, and keep everything running in tip-top shape during normal day-to-day operations and have been called upon to take care of the masses at Wat Pa Baan Tad. They have set up production lines of food service that would put any buffet restaurant to shame.
The crowds have been huge and will continue to get bigger and bigger as we get nearer 5 March.
This just goes to show how much respect the Thai Buddhist community has for Luangta Maha Bua and all that he did for Thailand, especially raising millions of dollars to bail out the Thai economy.
He is one of the last remaining Forest Monks and Luangta Maha Bua will be sorely missed by all of the people of Thailand.
Tom compiled an eBook of photos and it can be download for free here.
Luangta Maha Bua eBook
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