And it was!
The story goes that the well respected Buddhist abbot Kru Ba Tuang was awarded this temple, but when he took it over in 1988 it was in very poor condition. He was well connected, and quickly raised millions of baht to carry out the renovations. The money flow continued, so he added on, building fancier structures, and expanding the complex.
Agricultural scenery along the way.
Traditional rice storage huts.
Stopped for a break.
Big Thai house.
At the entrance to Wat Ban Den Temple.
There are a lot of fanciful animal structures.
While money is not supposed to be important in the teachings of Buddha, many Thai Buddhists believe that donations to religious institutions improve the likelihood of a higher level of existence in the next life. This is why we see so many donation boxes at all of the temples.
Of course there is big money in the church business no matter what the religion.
The opulence is definitely something else to see.
This massive new temple is only partly constructed.
Not quite sure why they need another one.
You'd think they could find a better use for the money.
I tried looking up why the rooster is prominent in Thai Buddhism, but I found too many different answers that made it seem like the people were just guessing. So who knows!
It's a big complex.
Totally free to wander around.
Although donations are welcome, of course!
There are 12 temples buildings, some quite different.
Ruth, and the huge reclining Buddha.
Wall mural inside.
Three headed elephant.
Who can guess how much all of this cost?
No idea. Certainly tens of millions of dollars, possibly even into the hundreds of millions. All in the name of religion.
Anyhow, an interesting visit nonetheless.
We hopped back on the bicycles and made our way through town to a little lunch spot at the side of the road. It turned out that the guy running it is Japanese, and so was the food.
I had some kind of chicken and rice, and fermented vegetables and Japanese soup.
Ruth had a pork stir fry and rice with Japanese soup.
We've managed to hitch a ride back to Chiang Mai with the other guests here... the guy from Netherlands and his Malaysian girlfriend. We've got tonight at a hotel near the airport, then flying to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning.
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Great deal on Campbell's Chunky Soup.
And in Canada...
Yum, I love Japanese food. As for the temple and all the massive structures and statues, the words "wretched excess" come to mind! Glad you were able to ride the bikes again!
ReplyDeleteWe honestly have not had Japanese food enough to know whether we like it or not but from everything we have learned about food from other cultures, is that the food is not the quite the same as what we get back home, so unless you have eaten in Japan, you may not have had true authentic Japanese food. This is what we have experienced in Thailand with their food compared to what we have eaten at home.
DeleteThat temple and all those structures truly are beyond ordinary, definitely way over the top but it was still lovely to see.
The bike still wasn't fixed but we knew that we would be biking on a relatively flat surface so Kevin was pretty sure the bike would make it all the way because really it would have been a bit too far to walk, especially in the heat.
Growing up I liked reading about other religions. I should have become a Buddhist :)
ReplyDeleteI can't say that either of us ever read about other religions when we were growing up but now that we have done so much traveling it is interesting learning about the different religions. I think I (Ruth) had to pick a religion, that being a Buddhist would be the most calming religion but we both know that we could never actually become a monk, lol. We did that one night temple stay with the monks when we were in South Korea and that was enough time to know that that life would definitely not be for us!
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