Description
Wat Pa Burapharam (วัดป่าบูรพาราม) is a Sakon Nakhon temple that is one of the few temples in Northeast Thailand that has a Burmese statue of the Buddha. Temples in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) sometimes engage in gift exchanges. Most of these occur in Thai provinces like Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Tak, which border Myanmar.
However, some gift exchanges have occurred with temples in Northeastern Thailand, such as Wat Pa Burapharam (วัดป่าบูรพาราม), which received a beautiful Burmese statue of the Buddha name named Luang Phaw Ong Dtam (หลวงพ่อองค์ดํา). The statue is carved from solid rock and was given to the temple in 2009 by monks from the Burmese town of Tachileik, where there is a border crossing into Chiang Rai.
Many of Thailand's most famous 20th century monks, such as Ajahn Man, spent time during the early 1900s wandering the forests of Myanmar as part of their spiritual pilgrimages. An interesting side note is that Burmese monks became vanguards of the independence movement from Britain during the 1940s, the monks becoming increasingly upset with the disrespect given to Burma's cultural norms, such as the British's refusal to remove their shoes when entering pagodas.
Wat Pa Burapharam (วัดป่าบูรพาราม) is a lovely forest temple located in the Sakon Nakhon sub-district of Dong Chon, which is about 30 minutes from the downtown area. It is only 4 kilometers away from another notable forest temple Wat Pa Dong Chon (วัดป่าดงชน), which has a pagoda honoring the life of the revered monk Phra Khru Kanti Thammarak (พระครูขันติธรรมารักษ์).
