Chiang Rai - The White Temple

Our tour guide only recommended one temple for us to visit throughout the tour. This is the Wat Rong Khun or the White Temple.

The Temple was born out of the devotion of an artist named Chalermchai Kosipipat, a deeply devout Buddhist famed for religious themed paintings. Chalermchai started the temple construction in 1996. After 17 years, only the ornate white main temple hall and the golden toilet have been completed.  A number of other buildings are under various stages of construction and decoration. The complete master plan is expected to take decades to complete. 

The crematorium

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Interestingly, Chalermchai chose white for the temple but golden colour for the toilets. He specifically chose golden colour for the restrooms to reflect worldliness. This is his way of showing the distortions people have about what is truly significant in lives! The toilets complex is indeed a luxurious building. It is manned and cleaned by volunteers.

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Many people be they adults and students come to the Temple to spend a couple of weeks or months providing free service to complete decorative items for the building complex.

In the past, the Chinese and the Egyptians built the Great Wall and the Pyramids by forced labour. Today, it is still possible to build iconic buildings and structures with free labour ostensibly drawn by a conviction to a religion.

The building is partially completed and appeared abandoned. It was said that Chalermchai would not accept donation that is deemed "dirty money" to complete his construction works.

Life-sized photo of Chalermchai Kosipipat.

An air-conditioned art gallery built next to the temple hall contains art works done by Chalermchai over the years. I believe not all would look at his art works favourably. This painting entitled "Love Each Other for World Peace" may be one such example!