I always had an inclination towards Buddhism which was stemmed out of history classes in school . We were taught about the early life of Gautam Buddha and his enlightenment. Later , Dalai Lama had profound effect on my life. I always felt that Buddhism is a way of life to connect to your higher self. I could never give shape to my this desire to visit a buddhist temple till this morning. I decided to visit this serene temple Wat Lao Veluwanaram of Ontario in Caledon east. It’s situated on 17969 airport road just 6 km north of Caledon east downtown . My whole experience was real enthralling . I’m posting few pics from my visit to this serene place:
This is beautiful motley structure of ubosot. This is the place where new monks are sworn in and place is off-limits to general public. The doors open on few special occasions in a year. The entrance of Ubosot always faces east. The roof of the temple has three different layers and horn-like finial on the roof ridge is called the chofah, representing the head of the garuda.
Naga ( Cobra snake) protecting the main entrance of the temple. The colours are really mesmerizing.
The doors of the main temple . The metal-craft of figures welcoming devotees to the temple is breath-taking.
Since ubosot was off-limits to general public, the Buddha statues are displayed in ‘Kuti’ for display and offering prayers.
The reclining posture may represent the Buddha resting or sleeping, but more usually represents the mahāparinabbāna: the Buddha’s final state of enlightenment before his death.
One of the Buddha statue showering blessing on living kind.
Outside the temple, the statues of Buddha are lined up with different hand gestures symbolizing peace, fearlessness, meditation, teaching and blessings.
This Buddha statue is depicting touching-the-Earth gesture (Bhūmiśparṣa mudrā) where the right arm rests on the right thigh with the fingers pointing downwards, but not always touching the earth. The left hand rests in the dhyāna mudrā position in the Buddha’s lap. This mudrā refers to calling the Earth to witness to his fulfilment of the perfections.
This statue of Buddha is in Meditation state (Dhyāna mudrā) where the hands are shown lying flat in the Buddha’s lap, palms upward. This mudrā is associated with a seated Buddha. It shows that the Buddha is disciplining his mind through mental concentration, a necessary step to achieving enlightenment.
Tons of goldfishes in the pond near the temple. Kids were thumping their feet on the metal bridge and fishes were actually liking the noise and got attracted towards the bridge in anticipation to get their foods.
A close up of goldfishes. Watching the fluid like movements of goldfishes were real stress-buster.
That’s a small bridge connecting the island to the temple. A soothing view of ‘ubosot’ and ‘sala’ from the island.
This is a small island in the middle of the lake where there is a platform around the maple tree. It’s like heaven when the stillness of water and dynamics of breeze soothes your afflicted soul. Just heaven !! I spent around 30 mins sitting on this platform while absorbing the peace from the surroundings.
Naga (snake) protecting the boundaries of the temple. A beautiful piece of artwork.
Beautifully crafted roof of ‘Sala’. A ‘Sala’ is an open pavilion used as a meeting place and to protect people from sun and rain. Most are open on all four sides.
This is the view of top of the sala-roof. Amazing piece of art on the roof. Love the shape of it against the blue sky.
A colourful glimpse of the temple from the north-east side of the wat.
This is the colourful picture of Dharamachakra on the roof of the temple. Dharamachakra is the wheel of the law. The eight spokes represent the eightfold path of buddhism.
All in all, it was a very beautiful experience of spirituality in this wat which is still under construction stage. If you are heading towards Wasaga beach from brampton or mississauga through airport road, make it a point to stop at this temple . Every moment here is worthwhile.
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