Far East Update 8 - Friday and Shabbat in Chiang Mai - Nov 2012

Friday and Shabbat in Chiang Mai

After a hectic day on Thursday, we decided to veg a bit on Friday.

We slept in and ate a late breakfast in our suite.

Then, not having taken a Tuk Tuk yet, we decided to take a quick tour of the city in one of these.

Tuk tuks are three wheeled motorbikes with a cabin that houses the driver and 2 - 4 passengers. They are everywhere in Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and in all large cities in Thailand. You simply hail them like you would a taxi.

We hired one to take us on a quick tour of the city, about 40 minutes in total and we paid 200 baht, which is about $6. We definitely overpaid because we hired it thru the hotel concierge and had we just gone out to the road and flagged one down, it would have been half the price.

Chiang Mai is a large spread out city of 1.6 million but the city centre has a dense concentration of narrow streets and alleys that surround the Old City.

The old city is one of Chiang Mai's biggest attractions. Built over 700 years ago, the city was once an entirely walled square surrounded by a moat. One can imagine what an exotic place it would have been centuries ago - a thriving centre for Buddhism, artisans and merchants thronging with monks swathed in orange, soldiers and elephants. It was a sight that no westerner was to see until Chiang Mai was visited by an Englishmen, Ralph Fitch around 1586.

There are a few remnants of the old wall and a few of the old gates are still standing.

Within the walls, there are numerous "wats" or Buddhist temples. In Thailand, there is a whole tourist industry built around the wats. People (Buddhists and non Buddhists) come from all over the world to see them, pray in them, take photos, participate in discussion groups with the monks and the novice monks in all languages etc. In the early morning, you can see many monks walking the streets of the city and people come out and give them food and money, which allows them to exist.

There are over 300 wats in Chiang Mai (guess there is the wat that I daven at and the 299 that I don't, l'havdil). Some are working temples of shimmering gold with hundreds of novice monks in glaring orange robes streaming past and Thais lighting incense and presenting gifts of food in front of giant gold Buddhas. Others are long neglected,chedis crumbling and being taken over by tropical vegetation.

Some of the very ornate structures which we saw while driving by on the Tuk Tuk were this one

And this one.

The oldest temple that we saw was this one, Wat Chiang Man, which dates back to 1297.

Because of Avoda Zara issues, we did not enter any of the wats but they certainly stand out as you are driving by. The vast majority of the population here is Buddhist.

While we were at Chabad on Thursday night, we noticed a picture on the bulletin board of the local Chabad rabbi putting tefillin on a Buddhist monk and while at first you wonder what is going on, you then begin to realize that unfortunately there are some of our Jewish brethren who have adopted the Buddhist way of life. This picture was of Chabad discovering one of them and attempting to rekindle the flame in his Neshoma. Lo alainu!

When we returned to the hotel, Fran went for another massage at the spa and I caught up on downloading pictures that I had taken.

In the afternoon, we visited the local mall and we were in for a surprise. The city that we had been in for the past three days was somewhat in disarray, the typical storefront was old, not cared for and reminded us of how things were many years ago, and then at this mall, barely three kms. away, we saw the most modern mall with branches of chain stores that you see all over the world. And it was busy! It was an interesting contrast.

Back to the hotel and prepare for Shabbat.

We really did not know what to expect for Shabbat at Chabad. How many people and what kind of mix?

By the time we arrived just before candle lighting time, there were about 20 people mingling around, many of them young israeli backpackers/tourists.  There were a few couples our age and we struck up a conversation with two of them; one was from Manchester and knew some of my family (surprise...surprise,!) and one from Raanana. The vast majority of the people were non dati and most of the Israelis were sefaradim which meant that they were attached traditionally, knowing how to daven and being familiar with how things are conducted at a Seudat Shabbat. You have to respect sefaradim. No matter what they do during the week, they want to attend a Seudat Shabbat and maintain their connection to yiddishkeit.

Davening began on time and was partly in the sefaradic style reading word by word. The shaliach was in NY as this was the special Shabbat for the shaliach convention, so things were being run by his brother in law and by the shaliach's  rebbetzin who was there with her three small children.

By the time we completed Kabbalat Shabbat, there were about 120 - 150 people there. They had to add tables as they were not expecting so many people. The meal is free to all who attend and it is yet another way that chabad is able to attract the numbers thru their door. it does not matter what you look like, how you are dressed and what affiliation you have, if any; if you are jewish, you are welcomed with open arms and a smile.

There was lots of challah, salads and rice and not much fish or chicken. The atmosphere was very lively with much communal singing of popular Israeli niggunim rather than traditional zemirot and the shaliach in training gave a dvar Torah in very quick Hebrew.

This was his last Shabbat (having been here from Kfar Chabad to help his sister and brother in law). He is heading back to NY to "find a kallah" and hopes to return as the shaliach in charge of the new emerging Chabad centre in Myanmar (formerly Burma).

There is no eiruv, so we made arrangements with the hotel to leave our key at the front desk, and when we returned, we did not have to say anything at all....as we walked not the lobby, a number of the staff scurried around to get our key to escort us to our room. They clearly have done this many times.

In the morning, davening began Chabad style at 10 am. I lained for them and had maftir. There were less people than the night before, but in total there were still about 30 people at davening and about 50 at the meal. We had fish, salads, and cholent. Immediately following the meal at 1:30 PM, we had a minyan for Mincha and people were asked to return at 6:21 for Maariv and havdala.

In discussion with the rebbetzin who has been here for three years and with a number of other Israelis who are now native to Chiang Mai, we learned that there are about 100 permanent Jewish residents, almost all from Israel, and only a few of them are regular attendees at Chabad.  There are only one or two shomer Shabbat people. There are a few people who live half a year in Israel and half a year here and there are a number of Israelis who have retired here as you can live very cheaply. They all said that they love the life here! And if given the opportunity, would stay here permanently.

The rebbetzin told us that she home schools her children and they participate in an online school that Chabad has set up world wide for their shlichim. She was joined this Shabbat by another rebbetzin from the branch in Koh Samui,  a Thai beach resort, whose husband was also in NY for Shabbat. They both said that the life is not easy but is very fulfilling and they are carrying on the Rebbe's mission of trying to be mekarev as many Jews as they can. It is really quite amazing!

As we are leaving early Sunday morning for Bangkok, we packed after havdala, and spent some time at the Saturday night walking market (not great....we like Nachalat Binyamin in Tel Aviv much more), which extends for about a mile down both sides of a street normally filled with traffic.
Nothing really worth buying!

We settled our bill with the hotel and thanked them for an amazing stay...have to be up early to catch our 8:20 flight....

Hope you had a wonderful Shabbat

We are off to Bangkok.

All the best

Fran and David