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The White Temple
Ayad Gharbawi Wat Ron Khun: A Contemporary Symbol of FaithWat 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?
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