Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei is the exquisite and quite compact pink sandstone temple that sits about 30 kilometres away from the main temple of Angkor Wat. It was constructed as a religious retreat by a Hindu priest called Yajnavaraha, spiritual advisor to the King. It is a beautiful thing, its intricate carvings quite well preserved, and its interior sacred space still palpable in a strange way, surrounded by carved stone monkey protectors, garudas and demons.

It takes the best part of an hour to get to Banteay Srei by tuk tuk from Angkor Wat, but it is well worth the trip. Some tour providers will tell you that it is not possible to visit the two sites in  the same day, but I have done so many times, and if you are time poor it is perfectly possible to see the highlights of the Angkor area in one day.

These days Banteay Srei is in a very well-kept tourist area, and there is coffee available there, as well as a whole complex of tourist shops. Bargain hard, and good luck, because the sellers are quite ferocious.
There are also a couple of quite good restaurants on the site, and it is well worth eating there, as they supply some quite good Khmer food - I recommend the Khmer noodles with a mild green curry, served with a bunch of exquisite fresh herbs foraged in local forests.

I'm not sure there is a particularly goood time to go to Banteay Srei. I have been at all times, and there has always been a dense crowd of tourists. It can actually become quite claustraphobic inside the temple complex because of the heat, the sun, and the heavy press of tourists. And God help you if you arrive at the same time as a busload of travellers from mainland China.




But you can deal with tourist crowds in a polite but assertive way. Just be prepared to push and shove, in a gentle and polite fashion, and don't get all angry if someone is standing in your way. They're on holiday too and have just as much right to take in the sights. And if someone shouts at you because you got in the way of their photo, just ignore them - they're being a dickhead.

The Wat

I have been reading Vittorio Roveda and Sothon Yem's simply exquisite Buddhist Painting in Cambodia, probably the most fascinating, and certainly the most beautiful, book about Cambodian Buddhism.

I read the following passage, and it prompted me to share some of the favourite photographs I have taken in Cambodia at temples:

"Withing the urban and rural landscape, the Buddhist monastery, referred to as a wat, has traditionally occupied a dominant place in Cambodia. The monasteries are sites where Cambodians have perpetuated ancient rites and traditions for centuries. Historically they have served to structure and sacralise the village space, creating the centre around which the population was installed."

 Vittorio Roveda & Sothon Yem, Buddhist Painting in Cambodia, p. 23

Modern naga balustrade

Wat Langka, Phnom Penh

A Temple Across the River, Phnom Penh

One day my friend Kakkada came and picked me up on his motorcycle and took me on the ferry across the river at Phnom Penh. The captain turned out to be kind of a hunk.

The other side was mostly Vietnamese, and had a Vietnamese Catholic church. I convinced Kakkada to come in - it was his first time on the grounds of a Catholic church and he was fascinated. 
We also visited the local temple, where we met the most adorable monk.

I was interested to find a statue of Ganesha on the temple grounds - this is still reasonably rare in Cambodia.

Kakkada, a trained artist, was amused by the murals inside the temples. He was bothered by the fact that the hands were too big.

Tet! Lunar New Year decorations at our local temple

Our nearby temple is Chua Minh Giac, and one of the resident monks is a dab hand at decoration.

Every year he goes all out to create some elaborate themed gardens and displays for visitors who come over the Lunar New Year period.

He has excelled himself this year.

Details:

Minh Giac Vietnamese Buddhist Temple
42 St. John's Rd
Cabramatta
(The temple is about a 15 minute walk from Cabramatta station)
Open 7am - 8.30pm
All welcome - enter the main hall via the driveway to the left of the house. If the roller-doors of the main temple aren't up,  you can gain access via the doorway at the left of the complex at the back.
Shoes need to be removed before entering.

Walter Mason's book Destination Saigon: Adventures in Vietnam (Allen & Unwin) was voted one of the 10 best travel books of 2010 by The Sydney Morning Herald.
It is available as a paperback and e-book from all good booksellers and on-line.

Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda

Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda is one of the Chinese clan temples (belonging to the Fujianese) in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown. District 5 is the old Cholon, once one of the most tremendous Chinese cities in the world - to read about it in its heyday you can't do better than Gontran de Poncins' wonderful book From A Chinese City. If you are lucky enough to travel to Ho Chi Minh City, you should really put aside a morning or afternoon to visit the colourful temples of Cholon.
The Phuoc An Hoi Quan is just two minutes walk from the Quan Am pagoda (that's not counting the ten minutes you will spend drumming up the courage to cross the truly terrifying Hung Vuong Rd.), so you should really plan to do both at once. Both temples are shown on maps in any of the guide books to Ho Chi Minh City.
There are reasonably concealed benches in the temple courtyard so it makes a nice place to sit and people watch without being hassled. Bring a fan.




The statue of Kwan Yin to the left of the courtyard as you enter is a very popular and lucky statue in this part of town.




And interestingly the robes for Kwan Yin that are donated by people who have had their prayers answered are embroidered with the names of the donors or the people they want blessed.




This is the first time I have seen this. I wonder if it's new or old?





There is also a lucky horse to your left as you enter the temple - it is meant to be lucky for travellers to stroke its mane.

Details:

Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda is at 184 D. Hung Vuong, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City.
It is meant to stay open till 6pm, but they normally won't let you in after 5.30.
It's a 10-15 minute taxi ride from downtown Saigon.
Photography is allowed, and you don't have to take your shoes off to enter this temple.
You can purchase incense and offerings inside the temple, where you will be charged the true local price.

A Di Da Phat

This is a pic of the Amitabha Tower that my friend designed and built at his temple in Quy Nhon City after he had a prophetic dream.
Amitabha Buddha is the central focus of worship in Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhism. The worship of Amitabha is a characteristic of the Pure Land School of Buddhism, though in reality it is very rare for any particular school to be practiced exclusively in Vietnam. Most teach a combination of various schools, which is the prevalent mode throughout East Asia, including in Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.

Vegetarian Fundraiser, Vinh Nghiem Vietnamese Buddhist Temple, Cabramatta, Sydney

A major form of fundraising for the multitudinous Vietnamese Buddhist temples in the suburbs of Sydney is the big vegetarian banquet.




These are immensely popular community events, with singers, raffles and legions of bored looking husbands standing out the front of the temple, smoking.
The noise is almost deafening, and you have to shout at everyone you meet, including normally quiet monks and nuns.




These crowded, noisy events are usually not for me. I prefer the temple when it is quiet and when there are fewer people around.
But for those who have less time to visit the temple at irregular hours, these special days provide a welcome opportunity to cultivate some good karma, have some lovely traditional food and kick back with friends while listening to some old tunes.

Tet at My Neighbourhood Temple

I live in the heart of Vietnamese Sydney, and am surrounded by at least a dozen Buddhist temples. If you hop in the car and venture further afield there are probably closer to 20.



But one of my favourites is the little house temple closest to me - Chua Minh Giac.



I visited on the weekend, when they were getting ready for the Lunar New Year.
Here is a little video of the surrounds, and some lovely pics of the main shrine taken by Thang.

Bonsai in Buddhist Temples in Vietnam

Monks are, naturally, somewhat restricted in the pastimes they can pursue.
Though they may play sports on temple grounds, hidden from the eyes of lay-people, and they may get enthusiastic about watching soccer on TV, generally they are forbidden from really indulging in sport as a hobby. That said, I once knew a monk in Saigon who was a keen body-builder. He eventually gave it away after a few years - he had come to the realisation that body-building was not quite in the spirit of his monastic vows.
Literature is, of course, an admirable pursuit for monks, and those who are talented enough spend their time writing or translating.
If they are wealthy, monks can turn their hand to collecting - Buddhist art, old manuscripts and antique vases are popular. I even know a monk who breeds pekingese dogs in his leisure time, though for some reason this makes me uneasy.
Monks can work on becoming artists and calligraphers, and sometimes flower arrangers - all are admirable skills in a monastery. Some turn their hand to the occult, and work on becoming expert at the I Ching, Chinese astrology and palm reading - this is all, of course, technically forbidden, but plenty of monks do it.
But there are three hobbies that monks in Vietnam excel at, and all are, in my book, exquisite and approrpiate. They are: tea connoisseurship, the growing of orchids and the cultivation of bonsai.



Bonsai are ubiquitous in the temple courtyards of Vietnam, and monks deal and trade in them.



They can be quite expensive, and sometimes a monk is appointed as temple gardener in order to attend to the bonsai.
If a monk or abbott is really keen on them common areas can become somewhat over-crowded with these potted plants.



Some are also allowed to grow to enormous size - I'm not quite sure if, in this case, they are still considered bonsai (perhaps an expert can enlighten us?), but they are still cared for and cultivated in the same manner.



Popular mythology would have it that the roots (no pun intended) of bonsai lie in the patient care and eccentric eye of the Buddhist monks of antiquity. Certainly it is a stately, gentle pursuit, and one worthy of monastic attention.

Monastery Gardens - Ho Chi Minh City - Chua Vien Giac

Right near my house in Ho Chi Minh City is a small suburban temple that was once dusty, decrepit and nondescript.




About ten years ago the new Abbott began to rebuild it, and these days it is one of the most beautiful temples in the City.




It is one of the few temples to have a dedicated full-time gardener (who also happens to be a monk), and the grounds are kept in pristine condition.




Chua Vien Giac is well worth a visit, not just for its lovely garden, but for its unique architecture, based on traditional Hue styles.

Details: Chua Vien Giac, 193 Bùi Thị Xuân – Phường 1 – Quận Tân Bình – TP. Hồ Chí Minh