Merit and the temple (บุญ, กรรม)

บุญ and กรรม

Thai daily life runs on a Buddhist pair of ideas you have half-met already: you know ทำบุญ (to make merit). Its noun บุญ is the merit itself — the good credit a person builds by giving and doing right. Its shadow is กรรม: karma, the consequence that follows what you do.

ทุกข์ is the suffering Buddhism starts from — everyday Thai uses it for plain distress too: มีทุกข์เรื่องงาน, troubled about work.

Speaking about the revered

องค์ is the classifier for what is revered — Buddha images, deities, royalty: เจ้าชายสององค์, two princes. หลวง marks the royal or public: ถนนหลวง (a public highway), วัดหลวง (a royal temple).

Blessing

เจริญ — to prosper, to flourish — is the word of blessings and of growth: เมืองเจริญขึ้น, a city prospering.