>Rathayatra in Bangkok

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Rathayatra in Bangkok
By Mahavaraha Dasa
Posted July 16, 2003

Dear devotees,

Bangkok City was blessed by Their Lordships Sri Jagannath, Sri Baladev, and Sri Subhadra Devi on the 29th of June. HH Bhakti Vigna Vinasha Nrshima Maharaj, who has been preaching there for a couple of years, was one of the main organizers of this wonderful chariot festival in the streets of Bangkok.

The local devotees and some Nepalis who are working there gave a lot of support and help to make this festival a great success. A chariot about 1.75 meters high was built and well decorated with colorful flowers and cloth by the local devotees.

At about 4 pm, a hundred devotees gathered at one of the school parks in the city center to begin. The procession crossed the famous Chao Phraya River and then passed through some streets where many Indians have businesses. Halfway through the procession, the crowd had grown to 250 people, mostly Burmese and Nepalese along with some Thais.

There was ecstatic kirtan. Some devotees distributed pamphlets and packets of prasadam to all those seeing the festival, probably for the first time in their lives for many of them.

The procession ended at the Hindu Samaj Temple, located in the city.

Every evening it rains in Bangkok without fail. On this day, as soon as we reached the Hindu Samaj, a thick, black cloud started covering the sky. The kirtan was getting more and more ecstatic, led by His Grace Guru Kripa Prabhu, a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada. Soon after we entered the main hall, it started pouring.

The program ended with arati, a short speech, kirtan, and prasadam. Everybody said that this was a good start and that this Rathayatra festival should be held every year. ISKCON now has a preaching center in Bangkok, with weekly Harinam at Lumpini Park, book distribution, and house programs.

All glories to all the devotees who worked so hard to bring this festival to the Land of Siam. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

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