Dubbed the “land of golden temples”, Thailand is a country that owns many different large and small temples. In addition to temples such as Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), Wat Saket (Temple of the Golden Mount), Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha)… in Bangkok, Chiang Rai, the northern province of Thailand, is famous for Wat. Rong Khun, the white temple with the most beautiful architecture in the world.
How was Wat Rong Khun built?
Wat Rong Khun was built in 1997 and designed by talented painter and architect Chalermchai. Although in 2014, Wat Rong Khun was partially destroyed due to the influence of the great earthquake in Chiang Rai, but architect Chalermchai was still determined to carry out the “heartfelt” work of his life.
Accordingly, he plans to create 9 separate architectural works from plaster and glass materials. The planned works include the hall, the main hall, the golden building, the museum, the moon house, the accommodation and the art gallery… however, it will take 60 to 90 years to accomplish this. Despite his age, Chalermchai still hopes to fulfill this wish soon.
Unique features of Wat Rong Khun
Unlike the dominant yellow color in Buddhism and many other temples in Thailand, Wat Rong Khun takes white as the center because this color symbolizes the purity of Buddhism. Although it only has a fairly large area of about 12,000 m2, Wat Rong Khun deserves to be called a work of art. With classical Thai architecture and surrealist style, Wat Rong Khun is surrounded by a lake and a multitude of meticulous and sophisticated sculptures.
Outstanding works at Wat Rong Khun
Bridge “reincarnation – rebirth”
The bridge of “reincarnation – rebirth” is placed right in front of the main hall at Wat Rong Khun, where countless hands are rising as if ready to pull anyone down. Once you cross this bridge, you will walk to the “gate of heaven” and enter the main hall, the only place at Wat Rong Khun where photography is not allowed and shoes must be left outside.
Heaven’s Gate
After crossing the bridge “samsara – rebirth” will be the gate of heaven with statues of two dharma protectors standing majestically and mighty. With delicate and meticulous sculptural lines, these two statues symbolize peace and death. Heaven’s gate is placed in the middle of the bridge “samsara – rebirth” and the main hall as implying that people, after being free from suffering, will be able to step foot into a better paradise.
Ubosot . main hall
This is the most important work of Wat Rong Khun, the main hall of Ubosot is a white plaster house with beautiful reflective glass pieces. This work is very elaborately decorated with motifs commonly found in many ancient temples in Thailand such as the three-story roof, the stylized image of the snake god Naga…
In addition, the walls of the main hall are not paintings depicting stories in Buddhism, but paintings with modern characters, representing two dark factions – bad as Batman, Spider… and the villains. evil in movies, comics.
Yellow house
As the only building with different colors at Wat Rong Khun, the yellow house with extremely sophisticated design is actually just a toilet here. Yellow color not only symbolizes the human body but also to express the desires of worldly money.
Lucky tree and prayer well
Around the grounds of Wat Rong Khun, there are countless concrete trees with countless metal leaves inscribed with wishes. With only 30 baht, you can write down your wishes and hang them on the tree so that your wish will soon come true.
In addition, near the lucky tree there is also a small well, you can throw a coin into the well and pray that your wish will be fulfilled soon in the future.
How to get to Wat Rong Khun
Wat Rong Khun is located about 15km from the center of Chiang Rai. You can travel on highway No. 1 (also known as Phahonyothin road) to Km816.
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2DEP Travel
