I have so many stories from Thailand it is hard to choose only a few to share. By far my favorite time was spent hiking and sitting in the forest. My favorite picture is from a group hike. We came across a gigantic strangler fig, or a parasitic tree that grows up around a host tree growing huge vines that eventually kill off the original tree. I love to climb trees and this was the best climbing tree I have ever come across. It made me so happy to find my footings and climb up into its branches. In the photo (and in real life) am completely dwarfed by the enormousness of the tree. We also ended up taking our group shot in front of this tree. My other favorite nature time was our eco-solo. The monks took us into the woods and found a spot for each of us where we could not see or hear any other person. We sat and meditated in our spot for three hours and it was tranquil and rejuvenating. I watched as giant millipedes climbed the trees around me. Dragonflies of several colors buzzed down the stream that I was seated next to. I watched a butterfly fly over the water as well. I could have spent all day there. Amazingly, while this is the activity I was looking forward to the most, I found out this was what some of my classmates were most stressed about. The second picture is the amazing view I had if I looked upstream.
The other most interesting part of my adventure was actually after the class when I spent a few days in Bangkok on my own. Although I have traveled alone before, it has been a while since I was in a country where I could not speak the language without a friend or guide. I wanted to visit the many beautiful temples while I was there but transportation was a challenge. There were no bus schedules printed off that I could take with me so I looked at the map on the street and thought I had it figured out. I got on a bus and after communicating with one of the other passengers and pointing on a map where I was trying to get realized I was on the wrong bus. Luckily, we hadn't traveled too far so I got off and walked back to my hotel. The next time I think I was on the right bus but I did not realize that I would have to transfer buses. Slightly farther into the journey, the bus driver made everyone get off the bus but we were nowhere near my destination. I looked at the bus map and could not figure out what bus I needed to get on so again I walked, this time for well over an hour in the rain, back to my hotel. The next attempt I decided to just take a tuk-tuk but the driver said I would be better off taking a boat and he could take me to the boat landing. So the tuk-tuk driver dropped me off and drove away while I wandered to find where this boat was. I eventually found a person who pointed to the different temples on the map and told me in broken English that the boat would take me to all of these tourist destinations. Not exactly true. The boat took us down the river and deposited me and my fellow tourists on a dock with no directions. Then, a very cross Thai woman demanded that we give her money for using her dock or we couldn't leave. We also couldn't get back on the boat as it had already departed. The other boat passengers tried to argue with the woman that the boat company did not say anything about additional fees but we all ended up paying so that we could leave. One of the other passengers was from Vietnam and spoke some English so we partnered up in an attempt to find our way to the temple. Finally going in the right direction, we were stopped by another Thai person telling us the temple was closed but that he could take us on a tour and the temple would be back open by then. Thankfully, we declined his offer and the temple was not in any way closed when we got there.
One of the benefits of my roundabout adventure (besides a fun story to share) was that while I was on the boat waiting to head off for my intended destination, I witnessed two different women practicing Prayer Animal Releases, which is what I had written my paper about. People purchase animals, mostly b
irds, fish, and turtles so that they can release the animals to boost their karma
(Chan, 2006; Gilbert, Sokha, Joyner, Thomson, & Poole
, 2012). This practice causes many invasive species to be released which is a huge threat to native wildlife. T
he National Wildlife Federation cites that “approximately 42% of threatened or endangered species are at risk primarily due to invasive species.” Native animals are also put at risk for poaching to be sold for this practice and the animals are often kept in poor conditions which causes mortality and the spread of disease (Gilbert et al., 2012). I was astounded that a religion such as Buddhism, which has such strong ties to nature and an ethic of doing no harm, could contribute to such an ecologically harmful practice. This concept ties well into my Master Plan revolving conservation education because this is an example of a conservation topic that we generally do not address in the U.S.
- Chan, S. W. (2006). Religious release of birds in Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong.
- Gilbert, M., Sokha, C., Joyner, P. H., Thomson, R. L., & Poole, C. (2012). Characterizing the trade of wild birds for merit release in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and associated risks to health and ecology. Biological Conservation, 153, 10-16.Harris, I. (1995). Buddhist environmental ethics and detraditionalization: The case of EcoBuddhism. Religion, 25(3), 199-211.
- National Wildlife Federation. Invasive Species. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Invasive-Species.aspx
I have so many stories from Thailand it is hard to choose only a few to share. By far my favorite time was spent hiking and sitting in the forest. My favorite picture is from a group hike. We came across a gigantic strangler fig, or a parasitic tree that grows up around a host tree growing huge vines that eventually kill off the original tree. I love to climb trees and this was the best climbing tree I have ever come across. It made me so happy to find my footings and climb up into its branches. In the photo (and in real life) am completely dwarfed by the enormousness of the tree. We also ended up taking our group shot in front of this tree. My other favorite nature time was our eco-solo. The monks took us into the woods and found a spot for each of us where we could not see or hear any other person. We sat and meditated in our spot for three hours and it was tranquil and rejuvenating. I watched as giant millipedes climbed the trees around me. Dragonflies of several colors buzzed down the stream that I was seated next to. I watched a butterfly fly over the water as well. I could have spent all day there. Amazingly, while this is the activity I was looking forward to the most, I found out this was what some of my classmates were most stressed about. The second picture is the amazing view I had if I looked upstream.
One of the benefits of my roundabout adventure (besides a fun story to share) was that while I was on the boat waiting to head off for my intended destination, I witnessed two different women practicing Prayer Animal Releases, which is what I had written my paper about. People purchase animals, mostly birds, fish, and turtles so that they can release the animals to boost their karma (Chan, 2006; Gilbert, Sokha, Joyner, Thomson, & Poole, 2012). This practice causes many invasive species to be released which is a huge threat to native wildlife. The National Wildlife Federation cites that “approximately 42% of threatened or endangered species are at risk primarily due to invasive species.” Native animals are also put at risk for poaching to be sold for this practice and the animals are often kept in poor conditions which causes mortality and the spread of disease (Gilbert et al., 2012). I was astounded that a religion such as Buddhism, which has such strong ties to nature and an ethic of doing no harm, could contribute to such an ecologically harmful practice. This concept ties well into my Master Plan revolving conservation education because this is an example of a conservation topic that we generally do not address in the U.S. 