Most temples in Thailand are new. Most of them look like Chinese restaurants.
With their bright colours and shining doors they make your mouth water
with images of roast duck and birds’ nest soup. Very few inspire the
kind of religious feeling you get in older structures where you know
you are walking in the footsteps of thousands of worshipers who have
trodden here for centuries.
An exception to the rule is Wat Phra That Lampang Luang in the Province
of Lampang.
In the Lonely Planet it is cited as being ‘without doubt the most magnificent
temple in Northern Thailand’, and this is no lie. Although construction
on the temple began in the 15th Century it has not been left
to bleed to death like so many others. It has been constantly used,
renovated and added to. One of the reasons is that the central Chedi
contains not only one of Buddha’s hairs, but the ashes of his right
forehead as well. In one of the side chapels is a slab of stone with
Buddha’s footprint, but the entrance to this is guarded by a sign reading
"Ladies not allowed".
The whole place is filled with the smell of living history. The light
filters into the main sanctuary at odd angles giving it contrast and
giving rest to the eyes which have been blinded white by the tropical
Siamese sun, the ancient statues are well preserved and you can feel
something which is so rare in Thailand: continuity; living history;
an unbroken line of adoring generations. There’s even a bullet hole
in an iron rail, where a Thai hero shot a Burmese general thus paving
the way for the liberation and consolidation of Siam.
Before finding this place I had begun to wonder if Thailand, the Thailand
of tuk-tuk drivers and night markets wasn’t invented just yesterday.
Now I know that it’s always been here.
Mair and Marie-Do
Photo galery 