Healthy Food

Flowers in Thailand   by Lucy

Thailand is a warm tropical country in South East Asia. Thailand has many varieties of plant and has a real tradition of flower cultivation. Flowers are symbolic of Buddhism in Thailand and you can see beautiful flower arrangements at Buddhist festivals where floats and religious icons are painstakingly decorating with an abundance of freshly picked flowers. Flowers are seen at every temple, people make pilgrimages to the local temples to put flowers and other donations which are given to the monks or laid by statues of Lord Buddha.
Thailand has an extraordinary number of public holidays ever year, most of which are for Buddhist holidays and are to remind people of the rite of passage of the Buddha and describe his life experiences on the path to nirvana. At each of these public festivals, festival goers can be seen laying a path of flowers in front of the processions where flower girls will walk carrying alms bowls and large bouquets of flowers.
People in Thailand usually grow flowers at home, and even the poor will take time to decorate their modest home with fresh growing flowers or with flowers they have picked from the roadside. People often grow orchids at home and will have a small area where they grow these flowers and often sell, exchange and collect these rare flowers.
Every state or province in Thailand has its own flower, which is used as an emblem on state documents and can be seen on road signs when you enter the state. For Bangkok the emblem is the Golden Shower Flowers, for Chiang Mai it is the Thai orchid, for Nakhon Sawan it is the lotus flower. There are many flowers and each have an interesting folklore story closely linked to Buddhism the religion of Thailand.
If you travel to Thailand be sure to visit Doi Tung flower garden where you can see a vast range of tropical orchid flowers. Doi Tung is in Chiang Rai. Also worth visiting are the Nong Nuch flower gardens in Pattaya