Sunday, January 4, 2015 New Buddha Statues at Wat Chedi Luang

I went to Wat Chedi Luang for my morning meditation, and saw that chairs and a pavilion were set up for a special ceremony. There are two trucks with large dark green statues, heavily wrapped in plastic, so I cannot see what is inside very well. I overheard one man saying that the trucks drove down from Chiang Rai early this morning. I will return to see what is apparently the unveiling of the statues.

Breakfast at the Tamarind Village

First, breakfast. I decided to go for breakfast to the Tamarind Village, a fairly upscale hotel just a few short blocks away.

The entrance to the Tamarind Village is almost a bamboo tunnel.

They have a very nice breakfast buffet by their pool for about $12 for non-residents. And just like at the 3-Sis, they serve Thai coffee, and it is delicious.

My first course was fruit, granola with dried banana, and coffee.

Then I returned for a couple small croissants, a small omelette, and some bacon. It is a very western breakfast, but very tasty. By the croissant is a dollop of fresh pineapple jam and another of fresh coconut jam that they make daily at the Tamarind Village. I need not say that they both are a treat.

New Statues at Wat Chedi Luang

The two new Buddha statues to be moved into place today are each made from a single piece of stone quarried from the bank of a river up near Chiang Rai (100 miles north of Chiang Mai). The larger of the two is said to be over 8500 kg, about 18,000 pounds or 9 tons.

The crane, by what I could read, is capable of handling 25 tons, so it is more than adequate.

A whole group of workers configured straps around the base of the statue. This took a long time, from start until they had the statue in place was over two hours. It was clear that there were no engineer’s direction about how to lift the statue, because they had many bad configurations of the strapping, and when they started to lift, it was clear that the statue was far off balance.

When they finally put the straps underneath, it was better balanced, but on the first lift attempt, it sounded as though the straps were going to tear – they were rated for only 2500 kg each, so they needed to double the straps. Finally, as you can see here, the Buddha was airborne.

Here are the workers directing the Buddha to the base. Note, no gloves, no hardhats.

They did get the Buddha in place, finally.

I did not wait around to see the move of the other statue. This is a very slow process, but it does work itself out.

Here is the second of the statues. A much darker green. These stone workers do beautiful work. Both statues are very detailed and beautifully crafted.

Next: Up the mountain to Wat Palad