🇹🇭 Chiang Rai
I take back what I said about temples
Chiang Rai is the northernmost city in Thailand. There’s not much to do in the city, with people mostly coming for one of three things:
Seeing some of the most interesting temples in the world.
Going to Laos by slow boat.
Entering the golden triangle.
I was there for the first reason, with the “White Temple” that’s there being probably the only temple I’ve ever had a serious interest in going to. I find the golden triangle fascinating, but I also like having two kidneys. If you don’t know about the golden triangle, going down a bit of a YouTube and Wikipedia rabbit hole about it will provide some entertainment.
Chiang Rai is a 4-hour drive from Chiang Mai, and while I could have sorted my own transport, an organised tour actually ended up being cheaper and easier, so I went for that.
Tour Extras
The tour started with a few extras that I wasn’t particularly excited for. First, we stopped at a tiny hot spring which had more touristy shops than I could count. Then, we visited a village belonging to the Kayan people - more colloquially known as the “Long Neck” tribe, as the women wear rings around their necks. The entire village was set up for people to walk around it, with a load of bric-a-brac for sale and the tribespeople set up for photos with tourists. I really didn’t like this, so I sped through the village - it must’ve felt really degrading for the Kayan people to have had their village turned into a human zoo.
The White Temple
The White Temple is a contemporary temple that was designed and built out of an older temple by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a famous Thai artist. According to the temple’s Wikipedia page, technically, it’s an art exhibit and not a temple. After having visited, I can sort of see why. The temple is privately owned and was entirely built at the artist’s expense.
The temple looks incredible. The intricate details really make it, including moulded human arms at its entrance. An immense amount of work must have gone into building it.
The temple was surrounded by some buildings in a similar style, and galleries showcasing solely the artist’s work. The artist seems to have found a style early on and stuck to it, not deviating from it much until recent years. As to his recent works, they seemed a bit like what a middle-aged person would share on Facebook. There was also this one with blocks of social media icons above the Buddha, because computer bad? It also had the Google Plus logo, which was crazy for a piece made in 2019.
My favourite part was the back wall inside the temple, opposite the Buddha. You couldn’t take photos inside, so I managed to find a photo of it online:
The artist, for some reason, decorated the wall with 9/11, Angry Birds, Minions, and Hellraiser, interspersed by Buddhist imagery. There were also other Western and pop culture references on the wall. Personally, I found this absolutely hilarious.
I tried to look for an explanation for why the wall was decorated like this, but found conflicting explanations. One source is saying that 9/11 is supposed to show the cost of war on innocent people, and that aliens flying into Kung-Fu Panda are supposed to show greater forces beyond us in this world. Another source says that it’s supposed to show the good and bad using Western imagery. I’m at a loss.
Blue Temple
Next, the aptly named Blue Temple. This was designed and built by one of the apprentices of the artist who built the White Temple and shares many similarities with it.
This is more of a Buddhist temple in a traditional sense, with the inside opting for intricate decorations over paintings of Michael Jackson stuck in a cycle of rebirth.
Red Temple
At this point, the temple naming started following a pattern, likely riding on the White Temple’s popularity. The Red Temple was our last stop, which was next to a huge Lady Buddha statue and a pagoda. They were cool, but honestly, they were trumped by the other temples in the area.
To finish the day, I tried a Chiang Rai speciality - Phulae Pineapple. These are tiny pineapples, but they’re very sweet. I could have had about 20.
At the end of the day, I made it back to Chiang Mai. I have some newfound inspiration for renovating a temple and decorating it with Drain Gang visuals and vintage Gregg Araki film posters.