Wesak Day (Part 3) - the Parade

After the morning shoot at Brickfields and the afternoon shoot at Wat Chetawan, I was home for a cold shower. After shower, I was already so tired until almost fell asleep on my chair, but I know I wouldn't want to miss the Parade at night so then I drove all the way down to KL again, this time, the Dataran Merdeka, one of the landmark in Malaysia as their passing point.



I reached there at about 7:30pm, the street were too quiet as like the parade will only begin few hours after. The people were almost too little for my expectation. I started wondering if I was too earlier...



Luckily we didn't have to wait too long until we saw the parade passing by. About 8pm+, we can see the "flowery cars" and a crowd of devotees started to walk towards us, most of them were carrying the lotus flower with burning candles.


















Some monks were sitting on the "flowery cars" sprinkling the holy waters to the people walked by.




Some were entertaining the people by presenting a more contemporary songs.




Kids leading the team by singing the song of Lord Buddha.



The parade ended around 10pm, also ended my one whole day shoot of Wesak.

It was extremely tired but I really enjoy that feeling, somehow it reminded me of the days shooting "the Roots" year ago, non-stop running, shooting and sweating all day long in order to catch, observe and learning every new things appear infront of my eyes. I love that feeling, because after the cold shower at night, it felt like I had gone through a complete and meaningful day.

Wesak Day (Part 2) - Wat Chetawan

Continued from the last post, after the shoot at Brickfields, we had our lunch at A&W Taman Jaya and then headed to Wat Chetawan Temple at Jalan Gasing, PJ. Wat Chetawan Temple is a Thai temple, it has a very beautiful architectures. The crowds at that time wasn't as packed as at Brickfields.


The main gate.


The main hall (The Bot).


The area where you get to go one round donating coins and ringing the bells.


Here goes Xiang ringing the bell.


Devotees used the golden papers to paint on the Lord Buddha's statue.




The blessing area in the main hall. The monks will so some chanting and then they will sprinkle you with the holy water.




What is this? Blessing for wealth?


The young monk.






The little prayer.




Back to the ringing bells area.








......

Then I saw a very long line, I walked forward and realized it was for bathing the Buddha statue. I was so excited because I didn't manage to shoot one from Brickfields that morning. Me and Xiang lined up and waiting for our turn too. After that I stayed and shoot for some times until I get the right shots I want.











A little girl offering donations to a group of Buddha statues.



In that evening, we did some prayers, donations and lots of photographs; although it was very hot and tiring, but it sure is a worth visiting experience. We left there around 5pm, went home to take bath and ready to go Dataran Merdeka for the next shoot - the parade.

Wesak Day (Part 1) - Buddhist Maha Vihara

Wesak Day (Vesak Day) is celebrated as the birthdate, as well as to commemorate Him reaching Enlightenment and His death.

Franky say, I had never celebrated Wesak Day, at least that's what I remember.
So this year, I ask people around for the best place/temple to shoot photos. Since most of them were suggesting about Brickfield, so I decided to go there this year.

I am glad that I could finally had an outing with Ah Lick, a best friend of mine who works now as a fulltime photographer.


We reach the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields around 10pm. The temple is very crowded, you get to see all sort of people, black white yellow brown coming to this place to celebrate Wesak.


The road leading to the temple. There were stalls selling flowers, books, and some donation booths. You can see there were many beggars along the road too.


The main gate known as the Sanchi Gate. We walked in and started taking photos around.




















They kept refill the oil lamps to make sure that the flames do not go out.






Volunteers for the blood donation.




Children art competition.




Devotees from different races.






The Bodhi Tree, the same species which Gautama Buddha meditated under and achieved Enlightenment.








Lotus fountain used as a wishing well.


Throwing coins into the well wishing for good lucks.




A kid was donating money to the beggars.


We left the place around 1pm. It wasn't like what I expected, I realized there actually has not much of interesting things to shoot. I ended up shooting hundreds of pictures but there aren't many that I really satisfied.

After had our lunch at A&W, I decided to visit another temple, the Wat Chetawan, which is a Thai temple to hunt for more interesting shots. I will share the photos here after this.