Thailand: Chiang Rai's White and Blue Temples, and the Black House

Welcome to a tour of Chiang Rai's coolest temples. This picture above is not a green screen backdrop, but this is one of the most ornate places we have been, yet the funny thing is, its not a temple at all, but an art exhibit. 

Known as Wat Rong Khun, it actually is a privately owned art exhibit in the style of a Buddhist temple, owned by Chalermchai Kositpitat. He has spent over a 1.8 million of his own money to reconstruct the exhibit, with his intent being for people to gain benefit from the Buddhist teachings. Kositpipat considers the temple to be an offering to Lord Buddha and believes the project will give him immortal life. I say the same thing about the person who invented air conditioning - they should be saved for that act alone. His plans of the grounds won't be done until 2070. Perspective!

Out of Chiang Mai we had to drive almost three hours to see this place. Our driver that day was not our favorite, and took the mountain road at insane speeds making everyone sick. When we stopped for a break I told me that his driving was very erratic and was making everyone sick. After a node of "OK" I was hoping to find that he would change, but alas he didn't. Luckily the road was straighter so we didn't get as sick on the last leg. 

This exhibit was packed. Thanks to a photo editing software we were able to take them all out, but this place was overwhelming occupied by Chinese tourists. In contrast to the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these temples charge for everyone to go on the grounds. 

The temple grounds were emaculate, similar to the care I see in our temples all over the world. The detail and reflection pool definitely made you feel like the time that was put into these was second to none.  The bridge you can see here represents the "the cycle of rebirth" as you cross over into the main building at the white temple, the ubosot. In front of the bridge are hundreds of outreaching hands that symbolize unrestrained desire, and was some that you would see out of the movie Labrinyth (go classic David Bowie). 

The bridge proclaims that the way to happiness is by foregoing temptation, greed, and desire, which I couldn't agree more.  Next to the lake stands two very elegant Kinnaree, half-human, half-bird creatures from Buddhist mythology that determine the fate of the dead. We were able to pass, so I guess that's a good thing?

The principal building, the ubosot is an all-white building with fragments of mirrored glass embedded in the building's exterior. The ubosot embodies design elements from classic Thai architecture such as the three-tiered roof and abundant use of Naga serpents. Inside the temple, the decor swiftly moves from pristine white to fiery and bewildering. 

We weren't able to get an pictures of the murals since you couldn't take pictures inside, but the murals were very disturbing, depict swirling orange flames and demon faces, interspersed with Michael Jackson, Neo from the Matrix, Freddy Kruger and the Terminator. They even randomly threw in Harry Potter. Random. Images of nuclear warfare, terrorist attacks such as the World Trade Center attack, and oil pumps hammer home the destructive impact that humans have had on earth, so the driving message this artist was trying to portray was "people are wicked." Would explain why they had hanging heads of demons and creatures like Gollum around the grounds...

Gotta love this picture though. Look at little A and M&M: ya it was hot that day and they were almost spent. Notice the nice demon heads? Random!

So we moved on next to the "Gold Building" which was situated on the same grounds but behind the white temple. 

The golden building represents the body, appropriately situated by the white ubosot which represents the mind. The gold symbolizes how people focus on worldly desires and money, which unfortunately is a struggle we all have. The white building represents the idea to make merit and to focus on the mind, instead of material things and possession. Plus, it was super cool to look at!

From there went drove to see Wat Song Suea Ten, or the "Blue Temple." It's only two years old, and literally translates into "dancing dragon:" don't mind if I do! This one was free and you could actually take pictures on the inside which was amazing as you could see. Another nice thing was that this one was not as packed as the White temple. 

The inside of this temple was so beautifully painted with vibrant colors and designs.  I don't know if it is because it is new or because of the choice of colors, but it was sure beautiful to behold.

The pristine budda almost has this "pearl" look to it, and was accented so impressively with blue lights and deep colors. The doors were huge and covered in gold. 

We walked all the way around the temple.  The detail was all the way through the entire building.  The back of the temple also held a large standing Buddha and more dragons.  

The last place we went today was Baan Dam, known as the black house. Created by another Thai artist, Thawan Duchanee, and this place is a collection of over 40 buildings. 

He passed away in 2014 at the age of 74, and although the grounds are pretty and some of the art was cool, the grounds are full of art that made me embarrassed to bring my children too. We didn't get any pictures because we didn't want to draw it to the attention of the kids.  But here are some pictures of the grounds and buildings.

The main building, seen below, is full of stuff you would see in Lord of the Rings, to include an anaconda snake skin table runner that spans 30 feet: polite pass! So I conclude that if you have children, seriously reconsider going here if you don't want them exposed to completely inappropriate depictions of sexual innuendos and sculptures that for our family we were not happy with. This stop was a quick one for us, but honestly we could have done without it all together. 

-Kevin