Here are a few pictures taken at Buddha Park (Wat Xieng Khuan) yesterday, some with my camera and some with my phone. There were a lot of people sprinkling water on the many Buddha statues, and there were many – big and small. Nothing particularly stood out except for the horrible singing on stage.

I saw a man at an altar shaking a bamboo cylinder containing fortune telling sticks. It’s a Buddhist and Taoist practice. Each of the little flat bamboo sticks in the cylinder has a number on it. Nearby, there would be a shelf with stacks of fortune slips with corresponding numbers. When a stick falls out due to the shaking, the person looks for the number and retrieves his/her fortune slip. So, if you get stick 42, you go to the shelf and look for fortune #42. Whatever is printed on the little slip of paper is Buddha’s answer to whatever you were asking or praying for. Many would keep that slip in their wallet as a cautionary reminder, or motivator.

The man yesterday did not look pleased with his fortune. He sat down somewhat defeated and gave the slip to his lady. This reminded me of a double date I was on many years ago at a Renaissance Fair in Michigan. The couple who had been dating for a few years went to two separate psychic booths for fortune telling. Afterwards, the girl asked her boyfriend, “How many children did she say you’ll have?”
“Two.”
“Mine said I’ll have four.”
They both looked very sad. They broke up a few months later.

Map of Places Visited