The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

A RAMBLE IN FOUR PARTS

Part One: An Ancient Rural Suiphanburi Riverside Wat

My friend John Stiles and I set off in my old truck up the road to the rural province of Suphanburi, to the northwest of Bangkok.  As usual, we had a vague idea, from a tertiary Google search, of what we wanted to see, but no particular plan: we would ramble.  We would eventually see several amazing Buddhist temple complexes, a Buffalo park, and a Farm Museum.  We never 'found' the actual town of Suphanburi, but we didn't care: we had a grand adventure rambling about the rural Thai countryside.

Suphanburi, just a two hours drive from my home, is like going back in time to simpler days in Thailand.

. . . and wonderful old Buddhist temples (Wats) dotted throughout the scenery.  Our first stop was as the result of spotting a large, towering chedi through some trees as we sped down the highway.  We turned off the road not knowing that we would find a most beautiful and interesting temple.

The wat we found was also a school, which was just getting started.  A student band was playing and children were singing.  We wandered in.

The wat was built along both sides of a river, one of the tributaries of the Chao Phraya River.

Marvelous aged textures throughout this beautiful place.

I believe we could have spent all day just photographing this door and the windows on this old storehouse.  The black mold outlining, the weathered and stained walls, the encroaching plants.  The color!  Incredible.  But we ambled on, pointing our cameras here and there, and always finding something visually interesting.

Detail of a weathered old river ferry boat that had been pulled up into the wat parking lot.

It was still early, after morning meditation, so the monks were out doing their chores.

The brooms neatly arranged . . . and a bench to sit on after completing the job.

In our ambling we found an old wooden building and went up the stairs to find a meditation hall with an elaborately decorated 'pulpit.'

Simple votive items in storage until tomorrow's meditation.

The simple interior of a rural Suphanburi wat.  Little did we know that just across the river was the other half of this wat complex . . . and it was something special!

We crossed the bridge to the other side of the wat.  It had a very different feel . . . Yes, this monk had a hole in his head (from an earlier injury).

A grilled banana hawker stood outside of the temple buildings.

A votive altar made in a boat at this riverside temple.

The boat altar was full of these scenes of devotional focus.

A reminder that these altars are not 'antiques' or 'relics' but living, current places of respect, attention, and daily tending (note the fresh bananas).

The entrance to the first wooden building we came to turned out to be a consolidated museum of the ancient Buddha images from the oldest wats on the ground.

The interior of the museum.  The light!  The light!

Remarkable.

Revered monks in effigy.

Many fine, ancient Buddha images were housed in the museum.

Ghostly reflections on the display cases enhanced our fantastic experience.

Remarkable artistry in gold.

We walked out of the museum and into a nondescript wooden structure next door . . . and another world revealed itself to us!!!

We entered at the invitation of an old monk . . . and went deeper and deeper into this artistically remarkable spiritual space.

Further and further into the old wooden temple . . .

The open-sided temple seemed recently restored.

Further and further into the temple until we came to the central altar.

Sacred altar to The Buddha.

As this is a living temple, the monks live in cells around the central temple and use it as a kind of day room for their chores.

All the mundane items of daily living stacked in a corner of this remarkably beautiful place.

There were many other other altars in the freshly varnished temple. This one included a 'self portrait' of your intrepid photographer.

I am keeping good company . . . John and The Buddha.

There were freeloader cats looking content in the temple.

The cats distributed themselves around the temple in the most aesthetic way possible.

A temple cat in full meditative repose.

Wonderful reflection of the surrounding temple structures on the polished varnish floor (with cat).

I was tempted . . . but relented . . . because of the peacefulness there.

I could have spent all day in that wooden temple (or all the rest of my life!) . . . but we left our homes that morning to ramble, and ramble we would.

I am not sure what to say about this.  I am sure this 'modern' monk is somewhere on his own spiritual path . . . but it seems odd to me.  I guess the Buddha did not anticipate modern technology, and the current wat abbots have not discovered effective guidance . . . or it doesn't matter.

Back outside in the real air . . . a row of chedis moldering away in the sunlight.

Yes, still inside the same temple grounds.  Buffalo revered as a part of the lives of the people who live in the surrounding rural farmland.

A beautiful Wat gate with welcoming mythological spirits.  This building was surrounded by a walled compound filled with old chedis holding the ashes, one would assume, of former monks and abbots.

The surrounding chedis.

The old chedis stand in a vigil around the temple . . .

Some of the detail of these old funerary chedis is still very beautiful.

Missing Buddha images!  If you ever go to Thailand, remember this photo!  This is where those expensive 'rare ancient Buddha' images sold in the expensive hotel art shops come from!  They are robbed from these old chedis.  It is against the law to export Buddha images without the proper permission from authorities.

Around the temple I walked admiring the lines of chedis.

A temple within a temple.  Stunning architecture.

Old and decaying temple hardware . . . and a new lock.

I left the inner courtyard though this gate . . . more exploring to do.

This wat building nearby drew my attention.

Several of the traditional white wat structures stood nearby.

An old, sun bleached and forlorn door to the first wat building.

A view between the several wats.  The small photos on the column (right) indicates there are the ash urns of deceased donors enshrined in the wall or column.

High up, under the gabled roof end, the exquisite Buddhist art looked almost new.

This old Buddhist tablet stood in front of a plaque listing donors to the Wat . . . in order of the amount donated.  My name, and my wife's name, appears on many of these donor lists throughout Thailand.

Birds had built quite a nest above one of the doors.

John and I wandered further back into the wat along a wooded path and discovered abandoned monks' quarters.  It looks like whoever lived there in the past left all of a sudden.

We sensed a mystery: Why had these monks left in such a hurry that they did not even have time to take their  robes with them?  Perhaps they had done something bad . . . or had been suddenly transferred to another wat . . . or . . .?

Along a path we came upon two powerful Buddha images in a pavilion next to a pond.

Each pavilion Buddha was amazing.

Behind the Buddha pavilion was this Thai-style cottage set in the middle of a pond.

This building was a bit of a mystery too: there was no bridge out to the structure, and there was no boat anywhere to be seen.

A small forest of trees full of chattering fruit bats surrounded the cottage in the pond.

It was not even noon and I felt my day had already been successful.  We walked out of the wat over the bridge and along this road.

Out past the old school house to my truck and back on the road to more rambling adventure in Suphanburi Province.

Oh, I almost forgot . . . there was a rooster at the wat and I took the best rooster photo of my entire life!