Wat's in a name narrative

Note:
Technically speaking the City Pillar site and the Golden Mount are not Wats like the third site Wat Suthat. They do not have a cadre of monks that live there nor a large central temple. However there are many Buddha statues and the Thai people worship at these sites also. What they do share in common with regular Wats are their beauty and serenity. JAM

Jules and I have already seen some of the major attractions in Bangkok so we decided to take a look at some of the other ones described in the guidebooks. The first is the Bangkok City Pillar Shrine. It is directly across the road from the most spectacular sight in Bangkok, the Royal Palace and Shrine of the Emerald Buddha. Consequently, it tends to be ignored. But it is very revered by Thai people. Its scale is manageable unlike its huge neighbor across the road. It is quite beautiful as the first three pictures show. It is carefully maintained by artisans, as are most of the other sites we visited. The next picture shows Thai people wrapping cloths around a small chedi--we have seen this done at other places--our friends who are Buddhist will need to explain its significance to us. Further down the path there was a stage where dancers performed. These were the youngest and oldest dancers that we have seen and I imagine that this is where the 60 year old dancers wind down their careers. The City Pillars contain the City's horoscope. King Rama IV tied the city horoscope to his birth horoscope so that the country and people would be under royal protection. The interior walls are painted on. It seems amazing but I checked it--it is not wallpaper--how did they manage to make it so perfect and symmetric? The five statutes are the guardian spirits protecting the city and the country. One for peace, one for happiness and prosperity, two who are attendants of the God of the dead, and finally, a guardian spirit responsible for all incidents on earth. This Shrine is very peaceful and lovely. Many Thai people were there paying their respects.
The next place we visited was the Golden Mount which sits on top of a winding stone staircase. At the foot of the Mount a young woman offered caged sparrows to be set free at the top of the Mount. I dutifully carried the cage to the top and set them free along with all my worries. The picture also shows wild orchids plants growing on a host tree. At the top of the Mount the view was fabulous. On the roof we could walk around the giant chedi and view Bangkok from all sides. Near the entrance of the Mount there is a small community called Ban Baat. The crafts people here make traditional bowls for monks. The tradition is for monks to go out early in the morning everyday with their bowls and the local people fill them with food which is what they eat for the day. We have seen this ourselves. Very often more food is donated than the bowl can hold so some extra bowls are carried by other people who work at the temple. They are made of 8 pieces of iron which are joined using a kind of solder and heated in a wood fire. They beat the iron bowels after firing in order to make them smooth--it takes 2 days to make a bowl. They have a lovely ring when struck. We saw several people involved in various parts of the process. We bought a small one.
Our guide book mentioned a famous vegan restaurant not far away so we decided to eat lunch there. It turned out to be a small hole in the wall restaurant--aren't they usually the best? This one was wonderful and it even offered something that I could eat.
Our final destination was Wat Suthat. Thailand's largest and earliest cast bronze Buddha image is inside this Wat. It is huge. All of these Wats-big and small-have one thing in common. There is a sense of peace inside. You leave the traffic and congestion and enter a place of calm and quiet. It was a lovely way to spend a day.