This morning I was reading in Tricycle magazine about the city of Chiang Mai in Thailand.  The article was aimed at the Buddhist traveller, and described six temples and other holy sites.  The writing was an immersion for me even though I’m 12,000 kilometres away.

I grew up in Toronto, Canada – certainly a multicultural city, but also one where about 50% of the residents are Christian. 

Tricycle has a series of articles about Buddhism in various parts of the world.  Here’s what the magazine has to say about Thailand:

92 percent of its residents are Buddhist!  A completely different spiritual world from the one I know.

I’ve spent a few weeks in New York City.  On one of my visits, I stayed in the borough of Queens, where 150 languages are spoken.  Marvelous.  For New York City as a whole, here is the breakdown of religions represented (in 2014):

So … my Canadian and American experience has centred on the dominance of Christianity.  What would I be feeling walking the streets of Chiang Mai?

And in June or July, an spiritual immersion of another type is on my menu.  I’ll be attending my friend Prabigya’s wedding in Nepal, where about 80% of the population is Hindu.

Time for my eyes to open more widely

Time for the brand new