The HIV Temple and Ayutthaya

On Tuesday morning, we headed out on an overnight field trip to the HIV Temple at Lopburi and Ayutthaya. Because a rough draft of the final papers was due for the Thai students on Wednesday and, I imagine, this trip is the equivalent of a New Yorker going to Times Square, they were given the option to not attend. Amy and Suk still decided to go… actually Suk was absent when the announcement was made that it was optional so he was sort of tricked into attending but we were happy to have him!

HIV Temple

Anyway, after about 2 hours of driving, we arrived at the HIV Temple and were met at the gate for a tour. The first place we were taken was a building that houses several bodies that were donated to the temple. The bodies are kept in metal cages and are at various levels of decomposition depending on their age. They are victims of AIDs with a wide range of ages, from small children to adults. There was one body that had mold all over it because o f a skin reaction to the chemicals used to preserve the bodies. This body had to be kept in a glass case instead and could not be disposed despite the adverse reaction because there were legal documents asserting that it was to be donated to the temple. For some, the idea of donating the body to the temple is controversial because Buddhists believe that the body must be cremated in order for the cycle of birth and rebirth to continue. Several human rights groups have criticized the temple for keeping the bodies out in the open and on display like this but the temple believes that it is an important reminder of the importance of valuing life. In the same room was a glass box with hundreds of white bags of ashes of AIDs victims that had not been claimed by the families of the deceased. We learned that misconceptions of HIV and AIDs were incredibly widespread in Thailand in past years and are only now improving. Earlier, people often thought that HIV could be spread just by skin to skin contact such as a handshake so when a member of their family was discovered to have it, they would often been ostracized or abandoned. We were told of taxis pulling up in front of the temple and sick people being pushed out and left sitting at the gate alone. After walking around the eerie building with cages of bodies, we headed outside and saw the various places where people could pray as well as little houses where HIV patients who were stable yet not quite ready to return to society could live as an intermediate step following their stay in the wards at the temple. We passed a group of statues created from the bones of HIV/AIDs patients that were created with the hope that misconceptions about the spread of the disease could be further reduced. We went on to see more housing, a gift shop that sold crafts created by the patients, and prayer area with more huge glass boxes of unclaimed ashes. We also walked through another building that displayed several jars of organs donated to the temple for display and study. The last part of the tour was the most interesting- we walked through one of the wards of HIV patients. They were mostly lying in their beds, which held everything they possessed (food, bottles of water, toys, books, trinkets). Often, it seemed there was little room for the patient in the bed with all the other stuff. The ward was not air conditioned because air conditioning contributes to the spread of TB so in the hot and humid summers of Thailand, the patients often lie in their beds wearing diapers only because they are too weak to stand or have lost the ability to move their legs. The patients are not treated at the temple; they are taken to a nearby hospital for treatment but return to the temple to stay, possibly because the hospital is too full to offer them a bed. The patients at the temple work together to care for each other by helping with tasks, such as changing the sheets and passing out donated food.
 

Sculptures from the bone resin of AIDs victims

Seeing all of this first hand was an incredible experience, perhaps one of my favorites on the trip. It was touching to see the generosity of the people working there as well as the monks, volunteers, and other patients. We were told that, at first, the monk who allowed the HIV patients to live in the temple with him faced challenges because people stopped donating food to him because of fear of the disease. (Side note: monks do not have any personal possessions and live solely off of donations of food and robes, etc. They walk the streets every morning at approximately 6 am to collect their food for the day and only eat before noon.) Each day, he found himself having to walk further and further from his temple to collect enough food to provide for himself and the HIV patients. It was heartening to see that this had changed as the beds were overflowing with food from donations. This, without a doubt was one of the most emotionally charged places we’ve visited during our time in Thailand; despite the sadness brought by the thousands of bags of ashes and the weakened patients, the collaboration of the patients, their smiles, and “sawasdee kas” directed at us created a feeling of hope for the future.

Merging on an elephant

After a quick lunch, I promptly fell asleep on the bus and woke up 3 hours later, VERY disoriented. We were ushered off the bus, directed to a line, and handed tickets. Seconds later, I was sitting on an elephant with Erin. For all I knew, the elephant could have been taking me to Cambodia (it wasn’t). We started off on our elephant ride by crossing a street and almost getting hit by a motorbike that was driven by a woman as her very young son stood in front of her with his hands on the handle bar. Safe. We walked along the busy road but had great views of ancient ruins. As my sleepiness wore off, I figured out that we were in Ayutthaya, which was the former capital of Thailand before being sacked by the Burmese. Our 15-minute elephant ride was a joke- it was literally along a road equivalent to Charles Street in Baltimore or JPA in Charlottesville. Erin and I decided we had “merged” using an elephant which was hilarious to think about. At least it made for entertaining photographs. Following our elephant ride, we walked around ruins that were the former grand palace. It was particularly cool to see because it was the exact same as the new grand palace in Bangkok which we went to see the second day we were in Thailand so I could somewhat imagine what each crumbling wall had used to look like.

Temple

That night, we headed to a group dinner at a restaurant on one of the several rivers that runs through Ayutthaya. Pi Da had ordered a variety of delicious Thai dishes that we all tried. Back at our hotel, very full and happy, we decided to work on creating a music video that we had been planning for a while. It all started out as a joke when we took a Tuk Tuk in Hua Hin to ride elephants. As we sped along on the highway, the driver turned on Lady Gaga on full blast. We had all laughed about how funny it would be to have a music video that took place in the Tuk Tuk with baths flying everywhere and thus, the idea for “Bahts on Bahts on Bahts” was born. On Monday, we had mentioned this to Larry right before class and told him that we thought he should be the rapper. By the end of the first lecture, Larry had whipped out several incredible verses. After filming a few scenes and getting some VERY bizarre looks from other people in the hotel, we headed to bed.

Bahts on Bahts on Bahts

Wednesday morning, we checked out and headed to one temple and two museums. Even beyond yesterday, I was in awe of the ruins because I don’t think that I’ve ever seen anything as old as these. They were built in 1350 when Ayutthaya was founded. The first museum explained the history of Ayutthaya and had models showing what it used to look like. The second museum was an art museum, which had a variety of beautiful artifacts including old Buddhas and wall carvings. Next, we headed to another hotel for an amazing all-you-can-eat buffet. Where I had one of my favorite Thai food items, something called “karon croch” (in Thai). It is basically coconut milk that is poured into a little pan slightly bigger than a half dollar coin. The heat causes the milk to brown on the outside and makes it into a little pie-like desert. They put sometimes put corn or a green herb in the middle, which remains somewhat liquid despite the outside crispiness. After two more temples and dozens more photographs, we headed back to Bangkok, tired but satisfied with our busy days.