Phrae II

I apologize for the delay on this second post. I was on a field visit without internet access for a week. Plus I have been a little lazy about blogging. It won't happen again.

Actually it will. Sorry for lying.

On to the discussion of temples in Phrae. Well, not discussion. I lied again. Mostly pictures.

Wat Sawaniwet. This one is located just north of the bus station. Not really remarkable. There is a temple school inside.

Wat Hua Khuang. If you enter the old city of Phrae from the North, this temple is in one of the side streets to the right (northwest). It is also location of a temple school. Behind the building you can see a chedi. It is fairly old. Otherwise not much to see here.

Wat Phrabat Munmuang Warawihan. Spelling is approximate. This one is located next to the traffic circle in the center of the old city. It has a temple school, but this one is for novice monks. A fair number of them stared at me from behind the wall as I walked past. I stopped and said hi. They all laughed and refused to talk.

Wat Srichom. A five minute walk to the west of the traffic circle. It really doesn't have much other than this old chedi. Oh and a temple school (perhaps you are noticing a pattern).

 Wat Luang. Located at the southern end of the old city.

The carvings on the doors were quite beautiful. I took quite a few pictures of them, but this one showed up best.

You can also see an elephant carving above the door here. This is fairly unique to Northern Thailand.

 Wat Phong Sunun. This is across the street from Wat Luang. Here I met a young monk who wanted to chat for a while. We talked about his career working in the Tiger Kingdom park in Chiang Mai. He had only been a monk for a few days and would only be in the temple for another week or so. His temporary visit into the priesthood was an effort to gain merit for him mother, who lives in Phrae. Such temporary ordinations are common in Thailand.

 Outdoor sleeping Buddha at the temple.

 Shiny gold chedi.

As one of my friends would say, "Buddha wisdom." This one says, "Shame of sin and fear of its results help prevent the world from destruction." I have found that the sayings posted in small town temples are generally more stringent in decrying sin that those found in Bangkok or even Chiang Mai.

 At my monk friend's urging, I walked another 5 minutes to the south to find Wat Phra Non. According to him, it was much more beautiful than the other temples in the area. He was probably correct.

 My favorite part of the temple were these window shutters. Beautiful gold on red carvings.

The temple also had this monument to forest monks, despite being one of the most urbanized temples I saw in Phrae. By urbanized, I mean it had no grassy space as it had all been paved over to make a parking lot.

 I also always enjoy the dragon guardians at the temple entrance.

 Walking back through the old city, I passed the city monument just as this young man was skateboarding past on his way to school. School starts at about 8 am, so by this time I had been wandering around the city for two hours seeing temples.

Wat Phra Ruang. Just east of the city monument.

After seeing so many examples of a typical Thai temple, perhaps you would be as surprised as I was to come across Wat Sra Pokaew. It is built of wood and in a very different style from most temples. More close to what I understand is the Burmese style.

 This is Wat Chai Mongkhon. I only took a picture because of the prayer lines hanging from the door and the gate before the temple. I thought it was pretty.

 More doors! Red and gold!

 The final temple in this post (but by no means the final temple in Phrae) is Wat Com Sawan. It was built by Burmese laborers in the area out of teak wood. It doesn't have many of the bright colors of the other temples, but I still really liked it.

 Unfortunately the lighting was really bad inside, my hands are shaky, and my camera is too smart for its own good. I couldn't get many good pictures until I started setting my camera on the ground.

I thought the simplicity of the temple was a very nice contrast to the other temples I had seen. If it would have only had a few red and gold doors, I would give it two thumbs up.

Anyways, Phrae has many temples. I didn't even include all of the ones I took pictures of. There really isn't much else for tourists to do. I liked it, though. Nice relaxing little town.

After about four days there, I was on another bus headed through the mountains toward the central plains and Bangkok.