The White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) & Interview With Chalermchai Kositpipat. Chiang Rai, Thailand

Join me on a tour of one of Thailand's biggest national monuments -Wat Rong Khun - also know as the White Temple!

The tour is followed by an interview with Thai National Artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, who built the White Temple to show the glory of thai Buddhist art.

Watch the interview and see what inspired the artist to build this edifice and find out how he wants to die (HINT: by meditation).

Find out what "Wat Rong Khun" means in Thai (hint: not White Temple)

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Thai and English Subtitles are also available by pressing CC!

มี ซับไทย และแปลเป็นภาษาไทย กดปุ่ม CC ครับ

Transcript (of the tour):
Hi guys and welcome to Native Explorer, the YouTube channel that will show how to travel global but local. Today we are in Chaingrai, Thailand. We are visiting Wat Rong Khun, also known by foreigners as the "White Temple".

I am going to take you on a tour in the temple, and then we're going to conduct an interview with the artist who built. Let's start!

This temple is artistically different than other temples in Thailand. It was built by a local famous artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, who wanted to show the glory of modern Thai Buddahist Art. Together with 60 of his disciples, it took him 18 years to build this edifice.

Why is the Tempe white and not gold like the rest of the temples in Thailand? According to the artist gold represents lust and greediness, as opposed to white, which represents utter purity.

In accordance with Buddhist tradition, the temple was built as if you are going on a spiritual journey. At the entrance of the temple you will encounter scary demons drowning in a pool. As you walk over the side, one is supposed to rid and leave behind his inner demons, evil deeds, and bad Karma.

This is the entrance to the Temple. As you walk into the Temple, you have this bell. You're supposed to ring it, and the sound should help you exorcise the inner demons inside you.

Behind me is the pool of the evil demons. You can see them drowning in Agony.

Over there is the bridge that lets you cross over to the other side. As you walk over the bridge you are supposed to rid yourself of all of your bad Karma, your evil deeds, your inner demons. When you reach the other side, you're supposed to be pure, and ready to meet Buddha.

That's it! We have reached the other side! Do you feel pure?

Behind me is the actual Temple. Inside there is a big status of Buddha, where people go, pray, ask for whatever they want to ask for.

We are not going to take pictures because no photos allowed. So I am just going to leave it up to you when you come and visit to go inside and admire the inner parts of the Temple.

So we finished the trip. We feel enlightened! we feel pure!
We feel cleansed!
But there is one question remanning, that is hovering above us.
The name of the temple in Thai is "WAT" -- "RONG" -- "KHUN".
"Wat" means temple. "Rong" Means Waterway. and "Khun" means Opaque. So wait!
Why would they call it the White Temple if in Thai the name is the Temple of Opaque Waterway?
Weird, no?
In the 18th century there used to be an agricultural village. In order to irrigate all of fields around the village, there used to be waterway, or a canal, and apparently the water there used to be very opaque, very unclear.
Next to this waterway there used to be a temple, just around here, where this temple is, which was used to call Wat Rong Khun - The Temple of the Opaque Waterway.
And this is how it got the name. However, the temple was destroyed, and it was only rebuilt about 20 years ago, when the artist decided to rebuilt it. And this is the result.
So that's it! Mystery solved!
Sawasdee Krap!(Hello!)