A visit to Wat Rong Khun, Chiang Rai

Saturday was a day packed full of things to do. At 6:30 in the morning joined Ally and her host family to travel to Chaing Rai—another city about 200 kilometers north. The ride through the countryside was beautiful we’d climb up mountains and then coast down. Small wats would pop up everywhere. We passed an enormous golden Buddha statue, for which the mountains made a stunning backdrop. The sole purpose of our visit to Chaing Rai was to see the Wat Rong Khun. It is a famous wat that is entirely white with many small mirrors to make it glimmer. Thailand’s most famous artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, built the wat and there was a gallery of his art on the temple grounds. His artwork is very colorful and has a distinctive style. Some of his later pieces tackle issues like poverty, globalization and global warming, but most of his work reflects his Buddhist faith. It was interesting to see Buddhist inspired paintings, in contrast to the many Christian inspired paintings that I’ve seen in the U.S. and elsewhere.

To see his artwork: http://www.rama9art.org/chalermchai/index.html

The interior of the wat has not been finished and there were apprentices working on the painting on the wall when we went inside. On the back wall there was a finished painting of a Buddha, then a white marble Buddha mounted on the wall, a golden Buddha sitting in front of it, and then even lower there was a seated monk in meditation. We later found out that the monk was a was statue, which explains why it could sit still for so long (although I’ve seen some monks remain still for a fairly long time in the past…they train for it).

The wat was very beautiful, but I got the impression that it was something Kositpipat had done to elevate his own status. The whole complex seemed self-glorifying. There were photos of the artist everywhere and the pamphlet I picked up talks only about him and his want to make merit. Having learned about and observed Thai society, I saw it a bit differently.

Thailand has a hierarchical society, with the royal family at the top, followed by monks and then lay people. Status is everything. So what could an internationally famous artist do to attain even more status without becoming a monk and giving up the comfortable lifestyle afforded by his riches? He could build a temple! But Wat Rong Khun is not just any temple. It is one of the most complex and aesthetically pleasing wats in all of Thailand. While I am convinced that his artwork, including the design of the temple, is inspired by his Buddhist faith, I am not entirely sure that his effort to make merit is not without some other societal motive.