When you are in the vicinity of Chiang Rai in Thailand, don’t miss seeing the White Temple with its Gold Toilets! Located 15 kilometers South West of Chiang Rai town, off Highway 1, the best way to get to this temple is by car or taxi. We visited this temple as part of our day trip to visit the attractions of Chiang Rai from Chiang Mai by private hired van with English speaking guide.
The White Temple, also known as Wat Rong Khun, is one of the most recognizable temples in Thailand. This is one of Chiang Rai’s most visited attractions. When we arrived at the temple, we could see a large number of visitors, both Thai and foreigners.
I had been to many temples, including those in Thailand. But this Buddhist temple stood out with its unique white colour and use of pieces of glass that made it sparkle in the bright Thai sunshine. The white colour signifies the purity of the Buddha, while the glass symbolizes the Buddha’s wisdom and the Dhamma, the Buddhist teachings.
This temple has an interesting story behind it as well. It was built by a local artist called Chalermchai Kositpipat who started out painting movie advertisements on billboards. His early works mixed traditional Thai Buddhist temple art with contemporary images, which was controversial. He spent some time working in Sri Lanka and was influenced by white statues and temples in Sri Lanka. When he returned to Thailand, he decided to completely rebuild this temple and fund the project with his own money. Today the works are ongoing.
To enter the main building of the temple, we had to walk through the bridge of “the cycle of rebirth”.
The first part of the bridge is a circular area with hundreds of reaching hands that symbolize desire. This area represents human suffering and hell.
Two huge creatures that represent Death and Rahu, who decides over men’s fate, guard the “Gate of Heaven”.
We passed through the “Gate of Heaven” successfully and onto the bridge of “the cycle of rebirth”. It signifies the crossing over from the cycle of death and rebirth into a state free from suffering.
It symbolizes the way to happiness by overcoming worldly things as temptations, greed and desire. In Buddhism, death is the transition from this life to the next, a cycle of death and rebirth that can only be ended by reaching enlightenment.
We had to remove our shoes, carried them in plastic bags provided, before entering the main building. The all-white building had fragments of reflective glass in the plaster and was very impressive when viewed up close.
No photography was allowed inside. Murals, painted by Chalermchai decorated the inside walls of the main building. He did a good job. Quite nice.
The murals depict modern representations of good and evil, with contemporary figures like Batman, Spiderman, villains and superheroes from movies and comics and even spaceships. A few cracks on the plaster showed the effects of a strong earthquake that hit Chiang Rai on 5 May 2014.
At the back of the main hall, there is a golden mural of the Buddha. There was a meditating monk sitting at the center of the hall. I was wondering if he was a real person or a wax figure. It looked life-like but sat completely still.
We left the main building and went to see another interesting building in this complex. Golden toilets!
Gold symbolizes how people focus on worldly desires and money. A golden toilet is the artist’s way of telling people that such desires are no good and “fit for the loo”. The guide told us that Chalermchai lives on the second floor of the golden building housing the golden toilets.
Scattered around the temple grounds are other interesting objects or works of art.
The temple is still not completely finished. More restoration and upgrades are ongoing, plus repairs to be done to damages caused by the earthquake. Would be even more impressive in the future.