Royal Kathina' Ceremony

The Admiral has really takin to Tai Chi over at a center in St. Pete : http://stpetersburg.florida.usa.taoist.org/ . So of course she heard about the Royal Kathrina' Ceremony that was going to be at a Buddhist Temple in Tampa. So she wanted to go and check it out. We drove about 20 minutes from our marina to the Wat Mongkolratanaran Tampa Buddhist Temple. This is a  celebration of the end of the rainy season and that is SO Appropriate for this years summer season here in Florida.



Free Food is part of this celebration, and this is the REAL Tai food,




I am guessing there were a couple of thousand here for this event, this is the line into the food tent, there was no way to sample it all.



We needed a guide to explain the shrines.

The campus is located right on the Hillsborough River



The walk along the river is beautiful and serene, every person here was smiling and happy. Lots of children, all happy!



Some arrived by boat



Bits of wisdom



This is a picture of a picture of the Buddhist shrine that is in the Temple. We were unsure if it would be impolite to take pictures in side the Temple.



These are the resident Monks




A little history of this Temple and community



The Monks seemed to be making sure everything was on schedule.



The Temple was not large enough to seat everyone so the tents set up outside had seating in front of a large Flat screen so everyone could participate in the formal ceremony.





Gotta remove your shoes before entering the Temple




This is where the offerings were placed, not sure who the guy is in the Picture but we think we saw him enter the Temple with his wife just before the Ceremony started. We are speculating that he was a founder of this Temple.




The entry to the Temple



We wanted to sit inside for the ceremony but felt like we would be taking up space for some important members of this community so we sat in the tent outside and watched on the TV.



A procession started the Ceremony, they marched around the Temple three times and then the procession entered the Temple.




This Mobile Shrine was built on a pickup truck and led the procession.



This is also when the Monks are presented with there new Robes. So a lot of the participants are carrying the Orange Robes.



Other gifts and contributions are presented in the procession.



We spent most of the day here and was a wonderful cultural experience for us as we immersed ourselves in this communities serenity, peace and love. I have been in a lot of different churches in my 61 years but it never felt like this. The entire event was about love, giving and peace. Did not notice anything about sinning or guilt!