In the last post, we visited the Golden Triangle. Part of that story is how Thailand and people in the Chiang Rai region regained control from the drug industry.
WHITE
An important player in that reclamation is Chalermchai Kositpipat, a local artist. With quite a vision, and his own funds, he aimed to transform an existing dilapidated temple, Wat Rong Khun. He bought the temple, and began its reconstruction in 1997. As of today, he’s reportedly spent over 40 million Thai baht, or about $1.2 million of his own money. Work continues to this day.
Amongst Kositpipat’s goals is that the temple complex be a center of learning and meditation to assist people to gain benefit from Buddhist teachings. He considers the temple to be an offering to Lord Buddha. ※
The rejuvenated Wat Rong Khun, or unofficially the White Temple, has significantly boosted tourism in Chiang Rai. It has become the region’s most popular attraction and a global symbol of the province.
We’ve seen a lot of temples in our time in Thailand, almost all of which are golden and multicolored. So why is this one shimmery white?
The answer, like answers to most questions about this temple, is to convey meaning. Its all-white facade symbolizes Buddha’s purity, while the embedded mirrors reflect wisdom and create a dazzling effect.
You know that this temple complex is not quite your grandmother’s Thai Buddhist temple. In order to approach the Ubosot, or ordination hall, you walk single-file on a bridge over a sea of ashy grasping hands. Some of the hands look more like claws that human hands. This zone represents desire, human suffering, and hell.
You cross a canal on a white bridge with Nāga snake rails and sculptures that look like icy flames. And two statues the portray Death and Rahu; these are the creatures that judge the fate of those who have died. This bridge is the passage to heaven.
You discover a fascinating aspect of Kositpipat’s vision once you enter the Ubosot. The walls are covered by golden and beautifully rendered painting. Close inspection reveals all sorts of contemporary memes and tropes.
We weren’t permitted to take any photographs in the main hall, but a couple are available online. They give a hint of the astonishing use of contemporary popular culture.
Chalermchai Kositpipat includes images of popular culture inside the hall of Wat Rong Khun to convey contemporary relevance and critique modern societal issues. These images, which feature characters like Superman, Batman, and even Michael Jackson, are integrated into murals alongside traditional Buddhist themes. This fusion serves as a mirror reflecting humanity’s struggles with materialism, addiction, and moral decay while emphasizing the need for spiritual awakening. By blending sacred symbolism with pop culture, Chalermchai aims to make Buddhist teachings more accessible and relatable to modern audiences. (※) (※) (※)
A symmetrical building stands just beyond the Ubosot; this is the Buddha Relics Tower. However, it is not clear if it houses any relics yet. Nonetheless, purely aesthetically, it is exquisite.
Work on the collection of buildings in the complex has not been completed. Comparing the unfinished buildings with the fully decorated ones shows the simplicity, even banality, of the underlying structure. Amazing how dressing the plain concrete with a skin of mirror-embedded white plaster panels turns the buildings into something alive.
Even the public toilets are remarkable, and curiously in a fully golden building. The gold symbolizes people’s focus on worldly distractions.
There are quirky, even disturbing touches everywhere — all commenting on the challenges and opportunities of our paths in life.
Kositpipat took traditional architectural and decorative forms, especially from this north-Thailand region, and created something new and fresh. This is now the contemporary Lanna style centered here in Chiang Rai. Lanna is a term for local people around here; it comes from the Lanna Kingdom of northern Thailand, which existed from the 13th to 18th centuries CE.
These buildings may overall take their forms from tradition, but they also are fully contemporary. This is a place for people living right now.
BLUE
Kositpipat’s creation and work at Wat Rong Khun inspired other architects to follow his new Lanna style. A striking example is Wat Rong Suea Ten, or the Blue Temple. A local artist and protégé of Kositpipat, Putha Kabkaew, is responsible for this celebration of Lanna style. This temple is quite contemporary, just finished in 2016.
Kabkaew uses this specific blue color similarly to how Kositpipat used white. However, here, blue represents purity, wisdom and the infinite. Use of blue like this is unique among Thai temples. The temple’s distinctiveness emphasizes the fusion of traditional Buddhist values with modern innovation and issues.
The paintings inside the main building depict stories from the life of Buddha in a modern artistic style. The goal here, like at the White Temple, is to connect the teachings and values of Buddha with our world today.
The giant blue figures that guard the precinct of Wat Rong Suea Ten are Nāga Thao Muthalin and Grandfather Srisuttho, mythical serpents that symbolize protection and spiritual guardianship, serving as a sacred introduction to the temple’s spiritual journey. Nāgas are revered as magical beings that bridge the divine and mortal realms, embodying strength, mystery, and reverence.
BLACK
Just outside of Chiang Rai, we find the Baan Dam Museum, or Black House Museum of Thawan Duchanee.
Thawan Duchanee, who died in 2014, was one of Thailand’s most famous, dynamic, and eccentric contemporary artists. He succeeded to such a degree that he became a wealthy man. He used his wealth to explore his art in this complex of over 40 buildings on 16 hectares / 40 acres.
While the building forms resemble temples of the north of the country, these are not temples; they are studios, display spaces, and artistic explorations.
Duchanee chose the black color to symbolize suffering and death. But he was also influenced by his years studying and working in the Netherlands and Germany. His use of black wood has similarities to rural buildings of Scandinavia.
His vision includes quite a few dark elements: black buffalo horns (provided to Duchanee from local abattoirs), skeletons…
…And sharp colors of blood red, black, and white.
Also lots of traditional and intricate wood carvings, perhaps designed by him, but carved by local artisans.
He started building his Black Houses some 20 years before Kositpipat started work on his White Temple. Kositpipat considers himself a protégé of Duchanee. They share a deep engagement with Theravada Buddhism and with the heritage of their Chiang Rai homeland. We get to see how each artist built upon this heritage to create strikingly new worlds.
We consider ourselves fairly adventurous eaters. But in Chiang Rai, we encountered a dose of reality.
A five-minute walk from our resort hotel on the banks of the Kok River, is a Lulum, a very local restaurant that a couple different people had recommended. We found a lively set of dining spaces on floating platforms on the river. The place was almost full when we arrived. It looked to us that everyone there was from Chiang Rai.
The menu was extensive. Fortunately many dishes were illustrated with photos. We selected some Fried Shrimp Cakes as appetizers. No problem there.
Then a Mixed Mushroom Curry with Grilled Fish, and something called Hang Lay Curry — which looked like a mixture of pork, peanuts, veggies and sauce.
The Mixed Mushroom Curry with Grilled Fish turned out to be more of a soup. We could see what looked like seaweed along with the fish and mushrooms. But Chiang Rai is very far inland, so we hadn’t expected seaweed.
First taste, and along with a fishy broth, that “seaweed” slimed itself into our mouth. We think that it was a kind of river algae — with a river-bottom taste. To our now less adventurous palate, it was dreadful!
Still, we will keep trying to be adventurous — with a bit more humility.
January 2025