Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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KHRU BA SRIVICHAI:
THE SAINT OF DOI SUTHEP

by Graeme Monaghan

If you go up Huay Kaow Road and past the Chiang Mai Zoo, you will come to a golden statue of a Buddhist monk standing at the foot of Doi Suthep, and, most likely, there will be people paying homage to it. The statue is of Northern Thailand�s most famous and revered monk, Khru Ba Srivichai.

The fifth lunar month each year sees the advent of Visakha Bucha Day, which is the celebration of the Lord Buddha�s birth, enlightenment, and death. Amongst the celebrations there is a candle-lit pilgrimage from that statue, up the mountain to the Wat Phra That, some seventeen kilometres further on, and what a spectacular event it is. That the procession should leave from that point is most appropriate as, without the devout monk, it would not be possible at all. But more of that later.

Early on the morning of New Year�s Day my wife and I set off to fulfill the necessary obligations for health and good fortune in the coming year. Although it involved no particularly exceptional ceremonies it was, for myself at any rate, to become a very special day. The first part of the operation is buying the gift, which is not very difficult as there is a shop near the Westin Hotel, which caters exclusively for religious items, and they have many ready-assembled goods to make it easier for the likes of us. Then, it was off to Wat Chai Mong Khon to release some birds and fishes. This particular temple is handily located for such matters as it is right on the banks of the Ping River. Whilst birds can be released anywhere, and simply fly away, it is much more practical to release fish into a river. Simple as it is, this is a delightful event, which I always enjoy. Giving freedom to a trapped animal is enough reward in itself whether it helps one�s karma or not. We tipped some scented water over the head of a Buddha image, and then it was off to Wat Sri Bahn Luang.

This is where my wife was to donate the gift to the monks, and this is where a surprise meeting took place. When we entered the viharn there were several younger monks sitting around, and one senior monk to whom my wife duly donated the goods and received a blessing in response. But, at the end of the room, sitting amongst many Buddha images, was another monk, sitting motionless in the lotus position. At first I simply though him to be a senior monk, possibly in the process of meditation but, after I had looked for a while, I realised he was not moving. By this time my wife had joined me and I asked who it was, and her reply made me gasp. �It is Khru Ba Srivichai,� she replied. What I was looking at was a wax model of Northern Thailand�s most famous and revered monk, that was so good it was difficult to believe he was not actually sitting there. Khru Ba Srivachai�s life had been filled with meritorious deeds such as the restoration of more than one hundred temples, including Harinpuchi and Hamadev in Lamphun and Wats Phra Singh and Suan Dok in Chiang Mai. As he was born in the middle of a storm he was given the nickname of �Thunder�, and showed his kindly nature as a child by secretly releasing caged animals. He joined the monkhood aged eighteen, and rapidly he gained a reputation in this area for his piousness and sincerity. Undoubtedly his best-known achievement however, was the construction of the road to Chiang Mai�s best-known landmark, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. (The temple on Suthep Mountain.) When you consider that before the road was in existence, the only way to the mountain temple was by tortuous foot trekking or by elephant. (Difficult to believe when we now look at the beautifully paved road.) He did this in 1935 with the aid of all the villages in the area by allotting each village a certain amount of road to work on, and each day more than five thousand volunteers would turn up to assist. The response to his project was so overwhelming that he was forced to reduce the agreed distance in order that each group could do their fair share. The road was completed in five months and twenty-two days, and the venerable monk�s car was the first vehicle to use it when he went to the official opening on the 30th April of that year. When one realises that all this work was done by hand labour without the aid of bulldozers, or any of the mechanical tools that today we take for granted, we begin to understand the magnitude of his achievement. As mentioned earlier, his highly revered statue now stands at the foot of the said mountain and all who pass by pay homage to it. Is it any wonder that he was held in such high regard to be eventually elevated to the title of �nak ban haeng lanna� or Lanna saint?

Though he died in 1938, aged sixty, his spirit lives on to help Thai people to this day, and most Northern Thai homes will have at least one photograph or image of him. I feel it a genuine privilege to have met him in the flesh, well, so to speak, and I could not help but think, �what an interesting way it was to begin the New Year�?