Wat Ron Khun: A Contemporary Symbol of Faith
The monochromatic, sprawling structure that is Thailand's Wat Rong Khun stands as the country's most unconventional Buddhist monument. Located in the city of Chiang Rai, Wat Rong Khun provides both tourists and native Thai with a contemporary representation of one architect's visionary approach to spirituality and worship. Renowned Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat began the realization of his ivory dream in 1998, but the temple's architectual origins predate the actual construction by more than twenty years: originally, the temple was conceived of by a group of dedicated Buddhists as a more modest and conventional wooden structure. However, numerous logistical setbacks prevented its completion--until, in 1977, Kositpipat embraced the project, and forged ahead using an all-white design that would reflect Buddha's wisdom and purity.
Wat Rong Khun may be aesthetically dissimilar to any other Buddhist temple in Thailand, yet this nexus of spiritual faith and unorthodox color palette (or lack thereof) has also made it one of the most popular in the region. This work-in-progress (it was slated for completion in 2008) boasts fantastically ornate statues, white-glass mosaics embedded in the pristine plaster, and--perhaps most curiously--a toilet facility constructed in gold. This odd divergence from Kositpipat's alabaster theme is significant in and of itself: by linking up the idea of human waste elimination with that of golden decadence, he strengthens the symbolic import of Wat Rong Khun's chromatically pure design.
Kosipipat’s re-envisioning of traditional Buddhist visual vocabulary allows the worshipper to analyze the concept and function of the temple in a modern context. He has created much more than a religious site—he has achieved a combination of postmodern statement with religious idolatry. But are these concepts not thought to be mutually exclusive in the more secularized United States? We struggle to reconcile traditionalism with a workable, modern view of religion, and the architectural result is generally one that appears cheap or irreverent. And yet, in every part of the world, the construction of churches, temples, and monuments to deities continues. Are they true manifestations of a pure spiritual devotion, or do they merely signify an attempt to solidify our faith through the physical world?
