Temples and shrines in Thailand often feature performances
by Thai dance troupes, who are hired by worshippers in return for seeing their
prayers at the shrine answered. Bangkok's famous Erawan Shrine is a Hindu
shrine that houses a statue of Phra Phrom,
the Thai representation of the Hindu god of creation Lord Brahma. More than
90 % of Thailand's population are Buddhist, but they mix aspects of Hindu and
animist beliefs into their spiritual perception and appear comfortable with
Hinduism's pantheon of gods blending with Buddha's teaching that god does not
exist…
Dancing bare-foot in
a temple seems like an idyllic job, but for Bangkok's shimmering temple dancers
at the Erawan Shrine it's a demanding career accompanied by incense-choked lungs, consequent dieting
and rare toilet breaks before the music stops on their 40th birthday.
“The greater the ambiguity,
the greater the pleasure.”
the greater the pleasure.”
(Milan Kundera)
Bangkok's
temples are a unique part of the capital's heart and soul; the lesser known Wat Sri Bunruang is
one of the c. 500 wats
in Bangkok. Strictly speaking a wat is a Buddhist
sacred precinct which consists of the vihara (the quarters for monks aka bhikkhus), the actual
temple, an edifice housing a large image of Buddha, and a structure for teaching, learning and dancing.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer...”(Rainer Maria Rilke)
Portrait photographs of Asian genderqueers in Matt Hahnewald's
Portrait photographs of dancers in Matt Hahnewald's
Flickr Album 2015-11h Dancing with the Thai Chinese
