Concrete heads hang from trees, sprouting moss and grass.
A demon towers above you, wielding a sword.
Hands reach up from the depths below.
This is Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple of Chiang Rai in Thailand. A place that feels like it stepped straight out of a fever dream, and a severe contrast to the traditional Thai temples you’ve likely seen before.
Wat Rong Khun is painted a brilliant white to symbolise the purity of Buddha, with shards of mirrored glass embedded throughout to reflect light, representing how the wisdom of Buddha shines out across the earth. It’s a design philosophy that extends to every corner of the temple, with every statue, bridge, and mural packed with symbolism.
But this is where the similarities with other Thai temples end.
Step inside, and you’ll find intricate murals that blend traditional Thai art with pop culture, sci-fi, cartoons, and superheroes… I’m talking about everything from Star Wars characters to Marvel icons painted throughout the patterns, challenging the idea that the sacred and the contemporary can’t coexist. It’s a beautiful, if slightly bizarre, collaboration between old and new, modern and traditional.
Wat Rong Khun is the brainchild of artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, who began this ambitious project in 1997. While the temple already attracts thousands of camera-toting visitors each year, it’s actually still a work in progress, with an estimated 30 years left before it’s considered “complete.”
Many of the temple’s messages focus on escaping passion and desire and moving towards tranquillity and enlightenment through Buddhist teachings. But it’s also open to interpretation, with themes that touch on the balance between heaven and hell, darkness and light, death and rebirth—the push and pull of the human experience.
And that’s what I love about it—it’s a work of art, which means you can think about what it means to you and how you interpret it, even though the designer had a meaning in mind when they created it.
Like the hands reaching up from below the Bridge of the Cycle of Rebirth—which symbolises the journey from the cycle of birth and death into a state of enlightenment and represents the unending desires and suffering of the human condition.
Or the two fierce creatures which flank the Gate of Heaven and represent Death and Rahu, who decide the fate of the dead—cross this threshold, and you symbolically leave your worldly desires behind.
Or the Main Hall (Ubosot), where you’ll find the playful murals I mentioned earlier. Every detail is thought out—even the toilets. While the temple itself is pure white, the toilets are housed in a striking golden building.
It’s such a fun place to explore as no detail is overlooked. It’s also a reminder that sometimes the most incredible places are the ones you stumble across unexpectedly, I first discovered Wat Rong Khun years ago on Pinterest, of all places, and it’s been on my bucket list ever since… So much so that I cycled 27km to go there!
But if you want to visit, and don’t fancy cycling there (don’t blame you!) there are various tours available from Chiang Mai!
