Temples of  Thailand - a photographic journey

Bangkok Area      Provinces: Central    North    North-East   West   South  East

Perfect Beauty - Temples of Thailand

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Perfect Beauty is the only expression which comes to my mind when thinking of a Wat, a temple in the Thai language. Although it is the closest translation, it does not really convey the full meaning of the word Wat. It is much more than just a place of worship. Buddhism requires all male believers to spend some time in their life as a monk. So, a Thai temple is much more than just a monastery. It influences life, culture and education and the Wat is very much a community center. In Bangkok it is also a place of silence where you can hide from the stress and traffic outside the Wat. For me the Wat and it‘s images of Buddha represent a Thai version of a Japanese garden – perfect beauty.

I didn't follow any convention when using the names of the temples. I used various maps, entrance signs, street signs or translations from various travel guides and they are all very different (English pronunciation vs. German or simply a Thai best guess of what the name would look like in 'farang' language). The Thai language is the best to use (and learn) for a correct usage of the name of the temple. 

There is no particular order of the provinces or the temples. They were added and updated according to the trips we took.

We also want to note that as this is the public internet, we are not posting very detailed pictures of the Buddha images in order to help to  protect them. A lot of individuals are scanning books and web sites for photos, which will then be used to "order" the stealing of such images. A very sad fact we have  come to learn on our travels and in our talks with the abbots. Hence we are usually just publishing a general view but not close-ups or details, except in those cases where the Buddha is very big, securely protected or already published in major publications. Images  that were only shown to us in a "private" session we are not displaying at all. 

One word of caution though! On the outside of the temples in Bangkok are many tuk-tuk drivers, who will tell you that the 'temple is closed today', or that the 'temple is only open for Buddhists today'. All they will try to do is, to get you into their tuk-tuk and take you on a shopping tour. Just ignore them and tell them that temples NEVER close! For the rest of the temples in Thailand, this problem is non existent though and you are normally invited into the temple without any trouble. 

By July 2008 we featured 800 temples on chimburi.com.  

Khmer temples in Thailand are now featured on our new web site www.kanjanee.com

Taxi for Bangkok and Taxi for Thailand