Once in Haadyai, after my friends and I had had dim sum at Grandma's, we decided to go Tesco Lotus which isn't very far away. We walked down a tarred road, passed a row of shophouses and suddenly saw a big statue looming just a stone throw away. Then, I remember having seen the statue from Tesco Lotus the last time I was there, little knowing that it marks the site of Wat Thaawon, otherwise known as Mahapanya Vidayalai which also serves as an international Buddhist university. The statue which looms at over 10 metres was the statue of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha holding a 42 meter staff. The temple ground is well-maintained and there's a nine-storey Chinese style pagoda besides many other interesting smaller statues which are rather different from those in Thai Theravada Buddhist temples. This is after all a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist temple. I like more the fact that the temple functions as a university; for what is a temple if it doesn't spread Dhamma?
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