JTBF Mission to Thailand 2010 (2/01-2/04)

Study Tour to Wat Sothorn and Talat Ban Mai

reported by Kanji Kato (Long Stay Committee, JTBF)

This year also I joined JTBF mission to Thailand, which has become one of annual events of JTBF.

Every year, "study tour" is included in the mission schedule, of which destination is popular for Thai people but not so much for Japanese tourists. This year we were advised by TAT Tokyo to visit Wat Sothorn and 100-years-old market "Talat Ban Mai" in Chachoengsao province, south eastern part of Thailand. Attendees from JTBF was only 3 for this time.

February 4th, our microbus left Intercontinental　Hotel at 9:00 am. We got on the highway from Ploenchit, passing Rama 9th street and Motor Way towards the south-eastern direction. In about an hour, we arrived at Wat Sothorn.

It is said that visitors to this temple are not so many on weekdays but on Saturday and Sunday. However, we were surprised to see so many visitors in spite of Thursday. They consisted of a variety of people, the aged or the young, male or female. It looked that not a small number of them belonged to the working age. We wondered why they ,people of the age, were so many in spite of weekdays. At an entrance of the house of worship, tens of dancers were presenting the well-known Thai dances.

Our guide spoke Japanese, but his instruction was not clear for us. Then, we just followed a crowd of people and entered the house of worship. Paid 20 baht for incense sticks, candles and 4 sheets of small gold leaves. Took off shoes, went inside, set incense sticks, candles and placed flowers. In the next room we found several statues of Budha, a little larger than human body, were sitting. Visitors were attaching gold leaves on the statues at knee, chest or head, according to their desire of healing point, probably. I attached gold leaves on the head desiring that I will be free from dotage.



Here and there, people were presenting and placing a big bag full of eggs. The guide explained it was to express thanks to Buddha statues for their wishes coming true. As 9 was considered a lucky number in Thailand, some presented eggs as many as 99. But you can not find the Buddha statue, which is fond of eggs, in any other place than Wat Sothorn.

We found none of Japanese visitors but a few European. All others were Thai, aged or young, male or female. We also found a group of middle school children. Mr. Yoshida, who understood Thai, communicated with them and found that they came for outdoors study programs. Almost all of them were carrying mobile phones.

It is said that, in this temple, they collect money offering of 200 thousands baht every weekday, 600 thousands to one million baht on Saturday and Sunday. If I assume one visitor pay 20 baht for incense sticks and flowers, 10,000 visitors every weekday and 30,000 to 50,000 visitors every Saturday or Sunday will correspond to the collected amount. Quite a large number of visitors indeed.

The main hall was built 6 years ago. Marble-stoned and has a tower crowned with a upward-thrusting spire. I suppose, in the temple, they had a plenty of the collected money and had no financial problem in building the fantastic main hall. Other than the newly-built main hall, were scattered the houses of worship and temple lodgings in a wide land space alongside of Bang Pakong river.

In the marble main hall, the ceiling was painted with the image of constellation. The floor was covered with marble plates as they were inlaid with gray-based but different colors, drawing out images of variety of animals. The floor image reminded me of Japanese painter Jakuchu Itoh of Edo period. There was a group of primary school children, sitting on the floor and sketching pictures of the floor images.

It is said in a history of the temple that, in the past, 3 Buddha statues were found on the bottom of Bang Pakong River and one of them was pulled up and has been enshrined. You can approach to Buddha statues of the house of worship, but not to Buddha statues of the main hall because they are quite large and placed in a high place. Offering of incense sticks is not allowed either.

There was a ferry dock in the temple yard. Our original plan was to get on the ferry and cruise to the next destination. However, we found it was fully booked and had to wait more than one hour for the next ferry. Then we gave up cruising and decided to drive to the next spot.

In a few minutes our car arrived at the market which was said to be the oldest in Thailand, almost 100 years old. Name of the market was Talat Ban Mai (New Market), which betrayed the old history. Quite a large number of old shops are located on both sides of 3 meters-width road. Behind the shop, are living spaces. The market was said to open Saturday and Sunday. When we visited on Thursday, only several shops close to the main street were open. They looked like Japanese candy shops which we were familiar with in the past. They said the total number of shops was 269. We found a picture of Teresa Teng, the famous singer who was found dead in Chiangmai, at a corner of the market. She loved south-east Asia and visited here also.

Study Tour of this time was a new experience and valuable for us. But difficulty was a lack of information. Prior to the tour, I tried to get preliminary knowledge of Wat Sothorn but could not find a reference in any guide book, written in Japanese. According to Mr. Yoshida, one of members, he had seen English introduction of Province Chachoengsao only in the English guide book published by the province. There will be no opportunity that general Japanese tourists are introduced to visit this spot. Our guide boastfully explained as "Wat Phra Kaew in the west, Wat Sothorn in the east". I wonder why this famous spot is not known to Japanese people nor introduced in any guidebook written in Japanese. I myself stayed in Thailand for 7 years, but did not know this place. I also asked several Japanese friends who are staying Thailand for long. No one knew either.

So far as TAT pay attention to Japanese residents in Thailand, as many as 46,000, and their potential influence to Japanese society, it is important for TAT to improve measures of introducing the hidden tour spots to Japanese. Preparation of Japanese guide book will be required at least.

To attract repeaters who have experienced almost all famous tour spots in Thailand, it is important to offer newly developed tour courses.

It was too bad that the Japanese-speaking tour guide did not understand our questions precisely but repeated stereotyped explanations only. There was no explanation which satisfied our interests in historical and geographical background. As we, Tourism Committee of JTBF, have recommended repeatedly, development of high quality tour guide is an urgent and important subject.