Late that afternoon, we meandered around the town. The weather was perfect, in the mid-80s, and the sky was block-printed with cumulus puffs. We strolled through the grassy, tree-shaded town square, past a tiered shrine with three tall teak pillars that locals wrapped with colourful ribbons for an auspicious start to 2024.
A square-block market building made of concrete was closing down when we stopped at a sidewalk flower shop across the street. A man named Reangprakaiy Decha nodded hello and went on to share that his family has been selling bunches of daisies and chrysanthemums and garlands of orange marigolds for temple offerings for 50 years.
Reangprakaiy, 39, meditates daily “to be sharper; not to cheat people, but to help them,” he said. Why, I asked, did the city seem so peaceful, the people so friendly? He told us that it had to do with the power of a certain Buddha statue.
