Classroom » Multimedia
Buddhist prayer and music
About this recording
- Date created
- September 28, 2000
- Duration
- 1:24
- Location
- Trang, Thailand
- File
- MP3
- License
- This recording copyright ©2000. Terms of use
In the classroom
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Part of a ten-day vegetarian festival. These bells and a wooden percussion instrument are played by monks (as I recall) while worshipers wai, or pray at different stations.
From my journal:
Go to temple with Ani and Hans. 20 baut (Thai currency) to buy incense sticks. Pray. At each station, I try to focus on something different. Health, wisdom, safety, family. We eat together afterward.
According to a UNC graduate student who grew up in Thailand, there are two strains of Buddhism in Thailand. The more predominant form is closer to that practiced in India. The other comes from China.
This festival is an example of a Chinese-influenced Buddhist practice. The percussion, the language of the prayers, and the point of the festival (to avoid eating meat for ten days) are all distinct examples of the Chinese influence.
