After leaving Chiang Mai, we headed further North to the city of Chiang Rai. Situated close to the “Golden Triangle” (where the border of Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet), this region became infamous for its sprawling opium fields in the 1960’s-1980’s. Now most of the opium has been replaced by other legal cash crops (tea, coffee, corn, etc…), but tourists still come to tour the area, which is rich in natural beauty.

Having only a short time, we opted to explore the artistic and sacred side of Chiang Rai – represented by two opposing colors: Black and White. Our first stop was the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun), a recent architectural achievement by artist Chalermchai Kositpipat. Kositpipat veered away from the traditional gold coloring of Thai temples because he thought white better represented the purity of the enlightened state than the mercantile color of gold. The outside of the temple is a magnificent sight to behold – glittering white in the light, its sharp lines bringing an immediate feeling of awe. It almost oddly resembles a winter wonderland that somehow found itself in steamy Thailand.  The entryway to the temple portrays humans and demons reaching up out of a pit of suffering – a symbol the artist says represents the suffering all beings must go through before reaching enlightenment. After passing over a bridge guarded by two giant demons, visitors enter the temple where a large white marble Buddha sits. On the wall in front of the Buddha are scenes of demons feeding on human suffering – missiles, whisky, pollution, etc… while on the walls on the side and behind the Buddha faithful practitioners are portrayed moving towards the heavenly realms. Perhaps most oddly, on the “demon wall”, there is a variety of science fiction and pop-culture icons moving around the demons. We saw Keanu Reeves from the matrix, the Hulk, Spiderman, the Predator, Darth Vader, even an Angry Bird from the iPhone game! Needless to say, the artist seemed to get a little carried away at this point as we struggled to understand what we were seeing and how it related to the overall message. 

The White Temple was about 13 kilometers south of town and after visiting, we headed about 25 kilometers north to the grounds of the Black Temple (Baan Si Dum). We found it to be opposite not just in color, but in style as well. Baan Si Dum is a complex of many buildings sharing the theme of artist Thawan Duchanee. It is dominated by a large Black Temple, filled with animal skins laid on long wooden tables and black chairs with buffalo horns at the top. There are also intricate wooden carvings depicting demons struggling with each other on the doorways. The rest of the grounds is littered with buildings that the artists didn’t have open that day. But walking among we saw common themes – animal bones (shark jaws, monkey skulls, etc…) and furs laid out domestically with bone carved furniture and Buddhist iconography. It was almost like a vision of a barbaric jungle king’s palace after he had converted to Buddhism. After the “bling” of the white temple, the Black Temple’s eerie scenes seemed to call the visitor towards the contemplation of death and the ephemeral aspect of our existence.

Some writers have described these temples as representing the heaven and hell of Buddhism. Neda and I couldn’t help but chuckle as we read that description. How ironic that these two temples have come to represent as stark a dualism as heaven and hell. In actuality, Buddhism is all about moving beyond the idea of dualism to find the interconnected whole. Heaven and hell, in this regard, are two sides of the same coin. We can be in paradise with our self-focused thoughts and find pain and alienation or we can be in hell with a right understanding of our interconnectedness and find peace and repose. Perhaps thinking of the black and white temples as two separate pieces is the problem in the first place. If we go beyond their differences and find the common message of impermanence and surrender that they implore, we find a deeper meaning than either piece has on its own.

We left Chiang Rai this morning, drove 3 hours and crossed the border into Laos. Our next stop is the Bokeo Nature Reserve where we will zipline hundreds of meters above the jungle floor in search of the elusive Black Gibbon! In the meantime, see the rest of Chiang Rai and the two temples here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyNTZGh

After leaving Baan Hom, Neda and I decided to take a day to visit the Elephant Nature Park about 65km outside of Chiang Mai. The founder of the park, Sangduen Chailert (nicknamed “Lek”) has created a sanctuary there for 35 elephants that have been rescued from logging operations, trekking jobs, and landmine accidents. She also cares for elephants whose parents have died, leaving them orphaned with no one to care for them.

  Sanctuaries like this one are increasingly necessary as over the past 100 years the population of elephants in Thailand has plummeted from 100,000 to a mere 3,000. This decline was exacerbated in 1989 when logging was banned in Thailand. Elephants whose main job was dragging cut wood out of forests (which sadly was destroying their own habitat) found themselves out of work and often abandoned. The animals would then search for food and be shot by farmers as nuisances when they encroached upon crops.

Domesticated elephants also suffered because they weren't suited for life in the wild after undergoing the process of Phajaan, or “The Crush”. In this ancient ritual, an elephant is prepared for a life of work through 3-7 days of torture in a wooden cell too small for its body. A whole village participates in the constant prodding and stabbing of an elephant if it shows any resistance to the process. They also throw in sleep, food, and water deprivation for good measure. The local shaman performs black magic to crush the animal's connection to its mother, and thereby its very soul. Some elephants don't even survive the brutal process, and those that do are irreparably traumatized. This trauma is no small thing considering elephant's 80 year lifespan. The Park felt it was important we saw a video of the process of the Phajaan that had been obtained by a journalist, and I agree that it is something everyone should be aware of. I am providing a link here, but please be aware that it is very hard to watch.  Click HERE to see it. 

The Elephant Nature Park is a special place because it seeks to create new paradigms for our relationships with elephants. Lek believes that domesticated elephants can be trained using positive reinforcement, patience, and love. Each elephant has a mahout (handler) who, instead of using chains and hooks to subdue the animals, uses fruit and baths in the river to reward the elephant for good behavior. The elephants roam freely and create social groups amongst themselves (an amazing feat since they are not related, but are all rescued). Lek and her mahouts' patience seem endless as they lovingly teach and care for their elephants. It is striking how for centuries local people have used only pain and negative reinforcement to train these animals, when a method of love is just as effective and preserves the dignity of the animal.

For us Lek’s approach had broader implications about the way we raise our own children and the ways in which we interact with each other in everyday life. How often do we find ourselves trying to resolve a problem by manipulating someone with fear, pain, triggering their insecurity, etc… It is the ego’s quick solution to getting what it wants and it is incredibly destructive both to the person doing the action and the receiver of it. Lek inspired us to see yet again how a path of love, while sometimes requiring more mindfulness, consistency, and patience, pays off in the long run by preserving the spirit of both parties.

  For Neda and me it was a wonderful day. We fed the elephants fresh bananas, melons, and squash. We learned about their personalities and individual stories. We helped bathe them in the park’s river and got elephant kisses for our efforts. They are truly loving, peaceful creatures whose majesty is inspiring to be around.  We experienced their intense loyalty to one another and the nurturing and playful spirit that the elephants were able to partly recapture, despite their abuse at the hands of humans. If you’d like to find out more about what you can do to help the plight of the Asian elephant, you can click HERE. Logging is still perfectly legal in Burma so the need for sanctuaries will not stop anytime soon. But if we can remember Lek and her message of love, there may be hope for the elephants as well as for us. Below are a few pics from our day, to see all of the great shots we captures, click here -  http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyKDTfQ.