Heaven And Hell In Our Palms.....The White Temple Of Chiang Rai

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Wat Rong Khun is the name of this White Temple. It was designed by the famous Chalermchai Kositpipat, started building in the 1998 and it is still in the process of building the rest of the buildings along side of the White Temple. It is located at Ban Rong Khun, about 13km from the city Chiang Rai.

The White Temple is painted all white, pasted with tiny silvery mirrors to make it unique and magnificent, with many statues in Thai style. I particularly like the two demonic figures in dragon bodies that guard the bridge of the temple. On the pool hundreds of hands in different sizes reaching out from the hell realm awaiting your hand to pull them up, that looked quite scary but artistic, reminded me of the movie "The Mummy Returned".

In the main hall, there sits the Buddha with all painted Muriels of different era, the modern thinking artist, painted the heavenly clouds and temples, batman, robin, superman and matrix were featured, that’s the nearest I could see. Unfortunately, tourists are not allowed to take pictures in this main hall.

The building for the restrooms was grandly built; it is so huge and beautiful. Everyone thought it is a temple. Who would build such grand restroom like this, the one and only Chalermchai Kositpipat.

When he was a kid, his mother used to take him to this small temple where now the White Temple is situated. While his mother was doing her rounds of offerings and prayers in the temple, Chalermchai drew the walls of the old temple. His mother scolded and beat him when she saw what her son did on the walls. The Monk told Chalermchai's mother not to beat him as he will grow up to be a well known artist in the future. True to his words, Chalermchai became a famous artist, where he held many exhibitions round the word, even the King of Thailand praises his work and bought his paintings. They are all expensive paintings. One day he went back to his hometown, visited the old temple, came up with a dream to rebuild the temple with a different concept depicting, "The Heaven and Hell" which many have gave great reviews when completed. I certainly gave him thumbs up for having great perception of his creation, very artistic, different from the norm, like a dream temple from afar until you get a closer look. The story of good and bad karma is all in our palms.

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Photos

white temple 1
main temple

white temple 8
liquor means death

white temple 15
they need a lending hand

white temple 11
chalermchai and john

white temple 14
they need a lending hand

white temple 19
the hell guards

Comments

[Hal Hall]

A New World Wonder
What a beautiful work of art! Thank you, John, for giving us a glimpse of such a wonder.