This bizarre-looking white temple located about five km south of
Chiang Rai City is the brainchild of Chiang Rai-born visual artist and
painter Chalermchai Kositpipat. He brings an unconventional approach to
temple architecture, fusing elements from his own imagination (white,
not gold, as a pure colour to embody the sacredness of temples) with
orthodox Buddhist teachings about heaven, hell, karma and earthly sins.
The temple is filled with Buddhist symbolisms, from its layout,
architecture, all the way to the ornate reliefs and mirror decorations.
You can only enter the ubosot (main chapel) from the front, via the
narrow bridge that passes over a pool of upturned, beseeching hands
representing suffering souls in hell. From here, there’s no turning
back, as the only way is to ascend ‘heavenwards’ to through the pathway
guarded over by demons to the ubosot.
Inside, two Buddha images seem to be floating on a lotus pedestal,
set against elaborately painted murals in various hues of gold and other
colours. Rather than traditional characters, Chalermchai uses icons
from modern culture, such as spaceships, superman, and even Neo from the
Matrix movie to tell the stories of the Buddha’s life and his teachings
on these murals, creating a rather striking – and lasting – impression
upon visitors.
From the ubosot, proceed on to the museum displaying Chalermchai’s
artworks, the souvenir shop and visit the in-house studio where
artifacts are assembled and decorated with mirrors before being hoisted
up and fixed onto the buildings’ bare concrete structure.
In a
way, Wat Rong Khun is similar to Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in
Barcolona. When Chalermchai first conceived the idea of building the
wat, he laid out a great grand plan for its design and construction but,
like Gaudi’s work, it will never be completed. Constructed in 1998, the
temple’s main chapel won’t be completely finished (with all decorations
and murals) before 2020, let alone the other structures surrounding it.
When completed, Wat Rong Khun will have a total of nine structures
fully decorated with the swirly reliefs and mirrors that the wat has
become famous for.
