Chiang Rai: The White Temple

 This particular temple, Wat Rong Khun, is a bit different from most temples in Thailand.

Or probably anywhere in the world. Captain and I were surprised to learn it is a privately owned temple that is still being worked on by Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat. He has designed it, constructed it, and is still working on it with a plan for it to be finished after his death! 

He opened the temple to the public in 1997, and figures it has decades to go before all the buildings are finished. Mr. Kositpipat has spent over one billion baht on this temple so far! He won't let people donate large amounts of money because he doesn't want anyone to try and influence his vision.

One thing about this temple is that it is BIG.

And white.

But really has a lot of different buildings.

That are white.

And a temple to Ganesha.

 

Which is gold. And so are the bathroom buildings.

 

ANYWAY, as I was trying to say before Captain started interrupting with colors of things...

Hey! The colors are important! Gold equals bathrooms! People need to know that!

...is that the mural in the temple and the decor in the trees show a lot of movie icons and other figures like Hello Kitty and Michael Jackson and Elvis and all the super heroes as being things that stop people from finding peace and happiness. And, by the way, public buildings are gold because people focus on money and material things whereas the white is to focus on being good and pure.

To get to the temple, you cross a bridge representing the cycle of rebirth. This bridge goes over "hell" from which arms and skulls are reaching up to escape.

 

 

I have to admit, this was pretty creepy.

When you reach the temple, you cross through the "gate of heaven." Inside, you are facing the images of Buddha. No one is allowed to take pictures inside the temple.

But what's behind you?

The Gate of Heaven. You just passed through it.

I meant ON THE WALL.

Oh, well the walls of the temple are intricately painted with a lot of things, but facing Buddha is the face of a demon. At the base are images of war, the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9-11, super heroes, Darth Vader, and other images from TV, movie, and pop culture.

Why are super heroes there with the bad guys? 

Well, Mr. Kositpipat wanted to show there are no super heroes coming to our rescue. We need to be the heroes, not movie stars or singers or cartoon characters. These same designs are hung from trees, and are really creepy.

 

The eyes of the demon were really creepy, too. Inside the eyes are the reflections of two people: Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush for the conflicts they were part of in the world. 

 Now when you look at the temple, you will see how ornate the decorations are. And they are all made by hand. The white building and the carvings are then embedded with small pieces of mirror to make it glitter in the sun. When finished, all of the buildings will have that amount of detail on them.

There are also some covered walkways that are filled with "Buddha keys" which are metal pieces people purchase and can write prayers or hopes on and they then get placed on these to create a silver decor.

I liked the Dhamma Garden at first. It was cool and shaded and some nice flowers. But then I started looking at the carvings in the rocks. Nothing is really like it seems at first! Kind of like the mural inside the temple.

 And here's another bathroom building. This one is by the Ganesha temple. Gold again.

The White Temple is built right beside a major road. Instead of ordinary "No Parking" signs on the road, the shoulder of the road has these traffic cones.

 We highly recommend going to see this in Chiang Rai. The artwork is fascinating and highly detailed!

But try to go early in the morning. As time passes, it will be more crowded and you will not have the opportunity to study the mural and carvings as much!