Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Wat Rong Khun Chiang Rai Thailand



This place is nuts. There's nothing else like it in Thailand, or the world, most likely. A Thai artist, a painter, had a dream or something in which he saw a white temple. The place looks like a giant wedding cake, except much, much more elaborately decorated.

The dream, I believe, was to become very famous, and to wildly increase the value of the artist's lavish output of paintings, etc, not to mention the sales from the gift shop of the temple, which was built almost entirely from donations.

Whatever, the place is shocking when you see it in bright sunlight, and the huge whiteness of the place makes it about the brightest place in Thailand, and that's saying something.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're right, it does look like it's made out of that cheap white wedding cake frosting. Not at all appetizing. A good rain should melt it down into a chalky lump.

fred c said...

It's a popular place for Thais to visit; Farang not so much. I was first here five years ago, when the whole thing was pretty new, and it was interesting to see all the expansion and development in the meantime. The artist's name, artistic output, and photographs of himself are now prominently featured. Some day it'll be it's own little dream (or nightmare) city of white cream-puffery.