Thread: Bobcock at Wat Rong Khun - Chiang Rai

I've always wanted to visit this temple which is just south of Chiang Rai city.

It's unconventional in the fact that it's all white. It's still under construction as has been for year.

Sadly the weather was awful, to photgraph it best would be a clear blue skied early morning, however i got it in rain and the middle of the day, so the pics are not great, until I started to process some of them in B&W, which made some of them more interesting.

First you enter to see this.....



Then you turn left to enter the main compound, which has ponds and fountains in front of the main ubosot.



As you turn to cross the bridge into the main ubosot you are surrounded my the hands of the tormented reaching up from hell.....I was terrified and have given up all sin since.

Those hands are freaky. I like it.

Originally Posted by Bobcock

Is it real? That red nail.

Well....it's real in the fact it was there, but they are not real people....

It was the sole reason for that shot

Bob, do you ever do HDR photography?

I ask because I think the second image posted would look great if there was blue sky. The green grass and blue sky in HDR would really bring out the temple.

Even as it is it is a very cool picture though.

as always very nice pics keep them comming a green from me

This one I deliberately bleached, I did think about making it look old, sepia that sort if thing, but in the end I liked it best like this.





Of all the wierd statues this was my favourite, a crab with wings.....Boo Bin....5555

Originally Posted by Bobcock

Slackula almost all of these are HDR

LMAO, shows how much I know! (zilch )

Thank's for posting BobC another must see next time we are out.

Seems that smoking is one of the evils the temple owner is campaigning against and good for him, bloody smokers.





And now the one I think is the best shot of the lot



THE END!!!

WOW, your's look really good in black and white. it was a shitty day for me when i went and i had too much light with gray clouds. think i really should of taken b&w like yours

Good job Knob.....there is one of them white temples on the way to Korat, I might stop and take it, suppoed to be the largest temple in the world....dunno about that, maybe biggest white one.

I went to a big temple under construction in a place called Sii Kiew which was not too far from Pak Chong on the main road into Korat. It was big, but it wasn't white at that time. Maybe head monk owns a whitewash firm so ...........

Hi Bobcock, I was at wat Rong Khun last januari and we had splendid weather.
What i notice, the weather can changes this Wat from a fairytale- into a horror Wat.
Nice pics! Unfortunatly i have a very slow internet connection at the moment, so i cannot post but i send you this link: Picasa-webalbums - joop - Wat Rong Khun

Gee,

There seems to be a lot of smoting going on in your photos !

I'm not a big one for smoting you know !

Unless of course I get the hankering to rightousness.

I'd a thought that the Thai's would just let the denizens of other worlds be, you know, let their karma deal with them, not have bullying, smoting male like deities making sure the owners of those arms get their come-up-ance.

anyhoo, I'm in London and always love these vicarious trips around Thailand.

thanks for the memories

You know, the weather may have been an advantage in some of the shots. The almost black-and-white nature of some of the photos really nicely highlight what color there is.

I see these as architectural and sculpturing marvels, nothing much to do what the Budhha preached. He gave up living in buildings like that (his princely palaces) to live with nature and in (social human) poverty, and had never advocated the use of human and material resources for building something like ever again.

The same can be said of Jesus Christ and Christianity. Though Jesus in his lifetime on earth had never lived in a palace, and therefore no "opportunity" to give it up, he had never advocated for such lavish and expensive cathedrals.