If your idea of a holiday goes beyond picture-taking, these revered temples may have what you really need

If you believe the surveys, most foreign tourists visit Bangkok for its age-old temples. With their soaring spires, they lend a mystical backdrop to the city’s modernising landscape – a perfect vista for a souvenir photo.

But if your idea of a holiday goes beyond picture-taking, these revered temples may have what you really need. Most people go on a holiday to relieve themselves of work-related tension and stress. Some fly to isolated beaches hoping to find a cure. Yet all they get is a temporary escape.

And that’s the tragedy. People think that by walking into an opulent hotel away from the din of the city, they will find the kind of mental ease they long for. But it takes more to have inner peace.

What it takes really is a new approach to life, a secret hidden in the chambers of the Buddhist temples dotting the city. This approach comes in the form of meditation, a mental exercise that in the end brings forth patience and tolerance – attributes that make for real peace.

Meditation won’t make you a kung fu master, as Hollywood movies would have you believe. What it does is give you a positive outlook in life and help you cope with the daily stresses of modern living.

Ever wondered why this country is called the Land of Smiles? The answer is simple. Despite its many adversities, the Thais take life with a grain of salt, preferring to focus on the positive than sulk over the negative. And they can do that because as Buddhists, meditation is the centrepiece of their religious practice. Through meditation, they develop the ability to keep calm no matter what.

Although it may seem a little complicated, meditation is easy to learn. In Bangkok, a number of temples offer meditation lessons to foreigners in English.

Foremost among these places is the International Buddhist Meditation Centre (02-623-6326 or 02-623-6328) at Wat Mahadhatu in Tra Prachan. The temple is located west of Sanam Luang and south of the National Museum and Thammasat University. Meditation classes in English are held daily from 1 to 6 p.m., except Sundays and Buddhist holidays.

Wat Pak Nam (02-467-0811) on Therdthai Road, Amper Phasicharoen, also offers lessons in English. Located west across the Chao Phraya River in Thonburi, it is still part of metropolitan Bangkok and can by reached by city buses Nos. 4, 9 or 103. You can also take a long-tailed boat to the temple from Rachini and Saphan Put jetties north of the Memorial Bridge on the east side of the Chao Phraya.

A lot more wats in Bangkok offer meditation lessons. Some of these places are listed on the website (www.wfb-hq.org) of the World Fellowship of Buddhists whose headquarters in Bangkok also offer meditation classes in English from 2 to 5:30 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month.

One need not really go somewhere far to find peace and quite. True peace, in fact, is just a wat away.