The Somdet is on the right
Wat Paknam Bhascharoen in Thon Buri, Bangkok, is not a tourist temple but an international meditation exercise hall and temples, the theory and practical method of the monk Phra monkon teep-ni, the founder of meditation, are spread throughout Thailand and the world. It is not the founder of Paknam Temple. It is a monk of restration monk. He recently learned from a phone call from a monk of the Obaku sect that the Somdet, the No.2 of the Thai Buddha, died a few years ago. It seemed to be 96 years old, but I remember taking pictures together in January 2016.
Six years later, on a rainy day, September 29, 2022, a gloomy atmosphere remained in Wat Paknam when I visited this time. I went to the Bangkok Mass Transit System airport station from Chiang Rai since I thought I could have a chance to go again during the transit of 8 hours to the flight to Japan.
When I arrived at the station, an information clerk told me that trains were not moving because of car inspections, so he guided me to a luxury limousine tour company, its clerk talked to me in Japanese, so I thought I might have to pay too much. After making line at the general taxi stand at the airport for 4 hours, a driver from Chiang Rai seemed to be relieved with a polite response, so I asked him if he could wait for about 30 minutes at Wat Paknam on the condition of returning to the airport. He replied that I was glad to do so. The suitcase was on a night flight, so I didn’t leave it, and there was no corner to leave, so I could put it in a taxi and go back and forth was 1000 baht round trip (about 4,000 yen).
When I heard about the transition in a nearby office with a statue of Phra monkon teep-ni, and heard about the deputy priest, Phra Chai Kittisaro, it seemed to be still there, and when I visited suddenly, I was still in the same temple lodging in the same place. I had no time, so I apologized to him for my short visit of only 10 minutes, and we could not communicate for a long time. I got his phone number, so I promised to meet again in April 2023. The taxi was waiting at the parking lot outside the temple, so he could let me go to the airport soon after greeting them.
Also, when I went to a toilet for ordinary people outside the temple, I saw a large Buddha statue, and a photo of the Somded was seen below it. I knew that the pagoda with the highest towering interior in Thailand was completed before that, so I didn’t know that the Buddha statue was created. Is it a memorial Buddha statue of the transition of Somdet? (It’s too early), or is it a monument of his life? Phra Chai, a deputy priest, said that it was not a grave (mausoleum). Even so, it was big.
Rest room under Buddha statue
@ Wat Paknam’s website has a photo of the decease memorial service. Please visit Wat Japanese website regarding this.
http://marsk.html.xdomain.jp
In addition, there are many personal posts on the pagoda of the Paknam temple.
@Two photos are from Wat Paknam’s website. The photo of the Buddha statue, and the one with Somdet was taken by Suchitoo during his trip in 2016.