How To Survive a Flood
Dear students and friends,
A few months back, Thailand was hit with a horrible flood. The cities and countrysides flooded very quickly, which meant that everyone had to act fast to save their lives. Take a look at the images below that a student of mine sent it to me via email.
I like how the Thai people could adapt so quickly and created such innovative floating devices to help them during the floods! Take a look at how creative they are, making full use of what they have around to survive the flood and continue with their daily life as usual.
Look around you… what can you create as a floating device?
Tsem Rinpoche
Floaters made from empty water bottles for this little doggy… cute!
How creative! They made a walk path for shoppers using the shopping trolleys.
Can you count how many trolleys there are??
Self-made raft made by empty buckets
Air filled plastics to make sure everyone stays afloat!
Tying their motorcycles on a high tree to prevent it from being submerged into the flood.
Floaters for this cat!!! Hehe cute
Very creative, they adapt to the situation really fast and are still proud citizens of their country!
Very good idea of wrapping their car to prevent water damage, nice to see everyone helping each other in times of need
I thought we’d only see this in the circus! Looks like these props comes in handy besides entertaining children… hehe…
A different mode of transportation… Creative!!!
A few people were well-prepared. Wrapping their cars with plastic to prevent damage
Wow… that’s one tall bicycle… hehe…
Tuktuk rides modified to be able to ride around the flooded area… nice
Very cute! People in Thailand really love their pets… preparing for the worst, they tie empty bottles to make sure their pets do not drown in the flood
Now that’s one speed boat we wont see often…
We don’t need slippers in the floods! All we need are plastic stools to keep us above water level
Look! A floating public wash room. Floods are messy, but we don’t have to make it worse with human waste floating around hehe…
The exhaust pipe is redirected upwards, making sure that the cars will still function even if the water level rises…
Going to the flooded area well-prepared…
Barrels attached to the side of the car so that it will float in events that the flood reaches levels that are dangerously high
Wow! Look how we can actually make use of all these plastic bottles that we discard without thought… they must have been very valuable when the floods hit Thailand…
Children sitting safely on a pile of empty water bottles…
Polystyrene Volkswagen? hehe…
Paddling through the flood in a modified bicycle
An empty barrel-turned-boat!
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This is really very funny and interesting. Never thought people could come up with such ideas to survive a flood. Thank you Rinpoche and blog team for sharing these humorous pictures!??
Handy because the Thais stock up on bottled water during the floods, in preparation for lack of clean water and they need to do something with the empty bottles.
Well, as they say, necessity is the mother of all inventions! While they are creative, these solutions are just symptomatic treatments. That wasn’t the first year it flooded in Thailand and the flooding will continue so as long as the government do not implement a permanent solution for the flooding, which definitely has a financial impact. Treating the resulting health problems costs money, as does the massive clean-up. The floods also affect tourism, keeping people away from the common attractions and businesses.
So while all of this looks like fun and games, and we should applaud the Thai people for their ingenuity, we should also look deeper at WHY the people are having to come up with their own solutions year after year for the floods.
Its very funny and educational. I lerned how to be creative and survive
I find this funny yet educational. I like how they modified their vehicles and prepare for the flood. I wonder how they can adapt so quickly. They also use every day stuff like stools, pipes and so on. I also find the Volkswagen cute.;)
人类的头脑变通和适应环境的能力太厉害了 !
可能在物质和金钱的诱惑,发展迅促,导致地球环境大量破坏,天灾越来越频密!
居住在马来西亚东海岸的我,看到水灾情况一年比一年严重,一家家的家庭遭到破坏,严重到有人伤亡,看到都好心疼!希望佛法可以尽快的净化人心,人类不杀害众生与破坏环境,祈求天下太平无灾难 !
OM MANI PEDME HUM
Dear Rinpoche, these ideas are really good. For some reasons Thailand is flooded almost every year and from the looks, they looked really calm and happy. I think we Malaysians will panic if there is a big flood like this in Malaysia. But then again, we can copy Thailand’s smart ideas of staying dry from a flood.
[…] Siapa sih yang ingin terkena musibah? Pastinya gak ada donk! Tapi sering terkena musibah bisa membuat orang jadi kreatif lho… Kreatif mencari cara bagaimana menghindari atau minimal mengurangi kerusakan yang dialami saat terjadi musibah. Seperti di Thailand ini, orang-orang dengan kreatif memodifikasi barang-barang di sekitar mereka agar bisa bertahan saat terjadi banjir. Cara kreatif orang Thailand menghadapi banjir, Sumber gambar : klik di sini […]
[…] Siapa sih yang ingin terkena musibah? Pastinya gak ada donk! Tapi sering terkena musibah bisa membuat orang jadi kreatif lho… Kreatif mencari cara bagaimana menghindari atau minimal mengurangi kerusakan yang dialami saat terjadi musibah. Seperti di Thailand ini, orang-orang dengan kreatif memodifikasi barang-barang di sekitar mereka agar bisa bertahan saat terjadi banjir. Cara kreatif orang Thailand menghadapi banjir, Sumber gambar : klik di sini […]
Dear Rinpoche, they sure are very creative! And yes Rinpoche, they can adapt into the situation easily. I’m really curious about how does boat in the last picture work because the boat and the engine is made from a empty barrel and giant bottles. I’m really blessed that there are no natural disaster in Malaysia.
谢谢仁波切分享。泰国是佛教国国家，人民从小就接受佛法和学习佛法。基本上都受到佛法的加持和开示， 所以他们多数都很知足常乐和安居乐业。遇到灾难时都是用平常心看待，也不会怨天怨地，这就是佛法的智慧。
泰国人真是乐天派，遭遇大水灾还可以如此创意。能够在苦中作乐总比无事生端，乘机打家劫舍来得有智慧。祈愿他们安居乐业快乐天成。
感恩仁波切的分享与开示
非常开心看见泰国的朋友，无论遇见什么问题，都运用他们无比创意的智慧来解决问题
许多时候，当问题发生的时候，许多人都会不断地抱怨或静静的呆着，等待问题自己解决或等别人来帮助
在娑婆世界里，我们因着我们的业果而受生，许多的状况或问题，都是来自我们的业果，倘若我们当我们遇见问题时，能抱住正能量来思考，用善智慧来解决与面对问题，那不是很好吗？
一直很喜欢泰国，佛法在泰国是如此地盛兴，造就泰国的国民都有着一颗善良与智慧的心，祈愿佛法在泰国增长并永在，祈愿泰国人们能常听闻佛法学习佛法，祈愿他们一切吉祥如意
祈愿尊贵的仁波切，长驻在世，常转法轮
It is really amazing how creative the Thais are. They use items that most people take it as rubbish, and they have transformed it into things that are so useful during a flood.
This clearly shows that if we are being placed in a critical situation we will be able to think how to save ourselves and our loved ones due to our selfish minds. Which also mean that many of us have the capability to think and act in intelligent ways, but we are not willing to due to our laziness and negative Karma.
[…] See more at: http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/funnies/how-to-survive-a-flood.html#sthash.5TDplchH.dp… Share this:TwitterFacebookGoogle +1Like this:Like Loading… This entry was tagged Creative, […]
WOW, these people are so creative it is actually funny 🙂 my favourite one was when they raised the height of the motor bikes so that they could go through the flood without any damage. I thought that was a very smart and good idea. But i have to say, all of these ways are very good, its nice to see people who are so smart. Thank You for sharing Rinpoche.
When you are pushed to fight for your survival, your brain goes into “overtime” mode and creativity comes to the fore.
These pictures are hilarious. They are amazing sports by not complaining all day bout how bad the flood is but rather embracing the fact that they will have to bear with it. They have this positive outlook on because they have the Dharma in their minds.
They are very creative! They are very inspiring because under such difficult circumstances, they are still able to face it happily and quietly. This is the spirit we should practise.
Thank You for sharing Rinpoche.
Love, beatrix.
I like how the people that lived in Thailand can stay calm and create stuff that can save their lives when float rises. They even use empty bottles to wrap around their pets so that they won’t drowned, they must have really love and care about their pets. I hope that there will be no more disaster in the world anymore.
When faced with adversities and fighting for survival, the mind will be pushed to think of every possible ways to get out of it. Plastics though not good for the environment proved to be very useful in times of flood. One lesson I learn from the pictures are those pets with the empty plastic bottles tied onto their body. Really, animals must not be forgotten in times of calamities.
The Thais are super creative ! And they must have a huge stock of empty plastic bottles!!!
Love the way they made floaters with these empty bottles for their pets – glad to know that the Thai loves and cares for their pets safety.
Necessity is the mother of invention . I am looking around me and i think the only thing that will float, in case there is a flood , are the large 5 gallon plastic bottles that we use on the water dispenser, and perhaps empty buckets !! I can put my smaller babies (mini schnauzers) in them and swim or wade out to safety with them, and for my larger babies, tie the 5 gallon bottles on them.
The photos do make me think what i can use in such a situation !!!
This is kinda of cute, most of the time we doesn’t need a lot of money but if we have effort and creativity a lot of things can be achieve.
A lot of time we will set rules and regulation to restrict ourselves not to do this or that. We said no to ourselves before we even tried to work something out.
What will you do if you also face this serious flood in wherever you are but you are facing financial problem ? Will you do something to solve the problem or just let the flood to destroy everything without any prevention ? I believe most of the people will think of ways to solve the problems.
Use the same theory in life, sometimes when we are facing certain problem, do we just stay still to the problem without doing anything or we actually think so ways to solve it ? Most of the time we will wait for others to solve our problem, but why don’t we take up the burden to help others?
This is a very interesting post and I just wanna to share with everyone how I feel.
Bryan
Hehe the first picture of the dog in the plastic bottles is so cute!! I think the Thais did a great job staying together and keeping calm and collected during this unfortunate disaster. Hopefully none of them were seriously injured.. May they be well and protected by the 3 Jewels always..
Thank you for sharing, Rinpoche!
Those above are so ingenious! I wouldn’t think of making half the things there, like the pathway to the supermarket, or using stools as raised platform shoes haha. I don’t know what I’d use as a floatation device if Malaysia was flooded. Perhaps I may just cling onto someone else’s lol
Some of the floatation devices above are so well thought out – like the last one! The man used a barrel and turned it into a boat, together with steering and leg rests.
It’s great to see that at the face of adversity, the Thai are not taking the situation bitterly but just getting on with life.
Click here to see more floatation devices from Bangkok!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150441571135166.417478.153794005165&type=3
I really like how they came up with the idea of using mineral water bottles as life jackets/floaties for the doggies and cat. Very cute & creative indeed x
Wow these are pretty amazing and innovative of the Thais! They really can get very creative and make do with whatever they have. This is one of things I’ve always admired about Thai people. They are artistic, innovative and very clever. Even though they don’t have a lot and not so advance compare to us in Malaysia, but they are very very creative.
Perhaps that is why they are creative because they have to think of ways and make use of whatever they have, hence imagination and creativity kicks in. Kudos to them and their positive attitude, even something negative like “flood” could create something positive. Something we can learn from.
Very interesting to see, I like this post and pictures.
It’s interesting people come out with all sort of creative kit for the floods. I like how they use trolley as a walk path and the rack made from plastic bottles.
Very interesting article indeed, this article shows how strong our adaption are, and how much talent we have, these people may not be ‘successful’ in being rich or so, but their capability of surviving from natural disaster is definitely much more powerful than those who owns a lot.
I love the idea of Polystyrene Volkswagen, so creative, being in disasters can still have fun.. haha, they are great man…
I am super amazed with all the ideas the Thais came up with. Life definitely goes on whatever situation we find ourselves in. The human mind has a survival instinct. When thrown into difficult situations, we can start thinking and utilising what we have around us and make the most out of it. If daily we are faced with difficulties, I think it will do people a lot of good. Hehe.
On the serious tone, many people do face difficulties daily. We too can be creative and start thinking how to assist them just like how Rinpoche comes up with many creative solutions in Rinpoche’s teachings to help others. If everyone cares to think in the survival instinct, we can do great things too.
It shows that when we are faced with adversity, the human brain will start to function more quickly and urgently. Jerks us out from our comfort zone. The dogs and cats look so cute with the plastic bottles tied round their bodies. How innovative.
Interestingly, people who have been through hardships tend to be able to overcome life’s obstacles better. If we compare what has happened to Thailand to other more developed countries, we can see the difference in attitudes towards hardships in life.
I love all the solutions that Thai residents came out with when facing difficulty. These solutions are all very practical.
May we all be able to embrace hardships with patience, kindness and trusts in Buddhas.
The flood has become so frequent in Thailand nowadays, and it has kind of become part of their lives. I must say the clever use of plastic bottles to float in the water is brilliant, and plastic wraps for the cars are really something new for me 🙂
However, what amazed me the most is the considerate efforts in saving the animals during this difficult period. Instead of just worrying about own car, house, personal belongings, they have also taken care of their animals, which I am very glad to see.
My prayers to you guys in Thailand and hope the flood subside very soon, and wish that it will not come back again.
Never knew that recycle plastic bottles can be so useful in time of flood disaster,something to learn from the Thai people,they are so creative.
I always admire Thais for their endless creativity and enjoy watchingbtv advertisements created by them, but THIS is real creativity and practicality rolled into one. It also shows how easily they adapt to changes and able to face challenges with totally optimism.
wow these people were really creative and they are safe. the best part is that the animals and humans and be protected and you never know when a flood is going to hit so thailand was smart to prepare.
Truly inspiring! I believe that there might be those who get scared and sad when bad things happen on them, but there is always another type of person who can really turn bad things to good. Just like these Thai people, their spirit is truly inspiring! Leave the sorrow aside and embrace the bad, then good things will come! 🙂
Innovative by the Thais they sure know how to overcome problems and obstacles. Some of their ideas are really ingenious.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this posting.Thai peoples really very smart,they can find this creative way to solve their problem by using all recycle items !! We have much to learn from them,kudos for them all ^_^
Dear Rinpoche the Thai people are indeed very creative and innovative people which always have wonderful ideas. Though there was a flood this wonderful Thai people have managed to overcome the floods. This people should be proud of what they can do!!! How i wish i could make all of this transports. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this story.
Very interesting to see how people use various ways to move from a place to another place in the flooded zone. The flood there lasted for months and people living there cannot leave their home because large areas were flooded, from home to workplace.
I find that pictures contain many plastic bottles, people are using bottles and containers everywhere to move around. More importantly from these photos we can see how they cope with their difficult circumstances.
As can be seen and learned from the blog on Thailand’s methods of flood survival, though some seem comical, others with a hilarious sense of humour, still flood survival awareness gives you the tools to learn how you can protect your homes and property from floods. Floods can be caused by many factors such as intensive rainfalls, massive amounts of water overflowing rivers, lakes, or even the seas. Excessive or continous rainfalls is the first sign that we should notice, that may occur. Flood survival preparedness is the key to keeping anyone’s family and property safe. So take serious note and heed the warnings, get prepared before its too late. Take no chances as shown in the aforesaid preparations; many a live can be safe!
哇，真的是好一句：马死落地行！人被逼到一个境界就会想办法生存。
但也从他们的脸上看得出，即使是在恶劣环境也都努力生活，帮助身边甚至动物们，而不是怨天怨地怨上帝。
Wow, the Thais are super duper creative! Empty bottles sure do come handy in time of emergency!
The old adage of survival of the fittest no longer applies in today’s volatile world. It is more like survival of those who are quickest to adapt. I think the Thai people in Bangkok have developed simply brilliant ways to ensure life goes on as normal. Instead of lamenting their water-logged problems, they just find simple but brilliant ways to make things work.
OMG!!! They are really creative. In the short time period, they can re-use all these recycle items to keep them to survive including for the little being. This is a very good example for us to learn how to survive when facing all this problem.
Basically, I love Thai people a lot, also they are very creative in advertisement and video side and one thing the Thai people are really super very friendly.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting an inspiring article here.
We can admire and at times laugh at the Thais’ various innovative ways of saving themselves in floods. I admire most the Thais’ tenacity in adverse situations like this, and yet carry on with their daily lives. We are very fortunate in Malaysia, and have much to learn from them. Thank you for sharing Rinpoche.
Under difficulty circumstances really can push the people to come out more ideas to overcome the difficulty.the Thai people show us even in such situation, yet they facing it with positive reaction.
These picture really showed how they are able to adapt in difficult situations,what I think is people in Thailand are getting used to the happening of floods such as Japanese got used to earthquakes. Remember the disastrous flood happened in Thailand in year 2011? I think from there on they’ve learnt their lesson and has instilled the knowledge of adaption method when floods occurred. All of the innovation are made of very primitive stuffs and technology but proven amazingly useful. Good Job Thais!!
Wow, it’s so creative!
The plastic stools turned “slippers” and trolley bridge is superb. Kudos to all creative people who turn disaster to time to showcase their creativity, creativity that saves lives.
I like this post and pictures!
Have to give it to the Thais. They are super creative. It’s very inspiring when you see people in distress situation just adapt and get on with their life. It makes all my problems seem so petty.
This positive view of things must stem from the long exposure to the teachings and energy of Buddhadharma. It is taught, the focus or importance is not in what happens to us but how we respond to it. The Thai people has certainly responded constructively to the disaster that struck their country. They created instead of reacted.
May this simple but meaningful post teach us all something!
Desperate situations definitely brings out the creativities to help make things easier. Better keep some empty water bottles around. Very handy!