Wat Pa Huai Lat
The forest temple Wat Pa Huai Lat (in Thai : วัด ป่า ห้วย ลาด , alternative spelling: Wat Pa Huay Lad ) is a Buddhist temple ( Wat ) in the Loei province .
location
The Wat Pa Huai Lat is located in the municipality ( tambon ) Santom ( สาน ต ม ) in the district ( Amphoe ) Phu Ruea ( ภูเรือ ), the northwestern part of the province of Loei in the Northeast region of Thailand , known as Isan - not far from the border with Laos . The distance from the city of Loei is about forty kilometers by road - coming from Loei the temple is about halfway between the village of Santom and the small market town of Phu Ruea; A little further north is the Phu Ruea National Park (Thai: อุทยานแห่งชาติ ภูเรือ ), which, like the amphoe, takes its name from a rocky peak in the shape of a Chinese junk , and a little south of the Phu Luang Game Reserve (Thai: เขต รักษา พันธุ์ สัตว์ ป่า ภู หลวง ); from Phitsanulok you can reach the temple on winding mountain roads after about 200 km. The Wat Pa Huai Lat is located at the kilometer mark 9 (which is understood as a sacred number in Buddhism) of the so-called Route 21 , as the state road 203 is called in its winding course in southern direction through the forested mountain region that separates the Isaan plateau from the central lowlands of Mae Nam Chao Phraya separates; Between Phu Ruea in the north and Saraburi in the south, this route 21 , which is as spectacular as it is fearful of accidents and which is also marketed to tourists under this name, extends over more than three hundred kilometers.
Terrain, buildings and sanctuaries
The extensive temple complex, nestling against wooded hills, is dominated by an impressive Sala (Thai: ศาลา เฉลิมพระเกียรติ ), a hall of honor in northern Thai-Laotian style - it is expressly referred to here as Sala , but not as Bot or Wihan , although it is is not a pavilion , but the central and most sacred temple building. Inside the large, hall-like room openly reveals a simple metal construction built over a cement floor covered with marble slabs, with for the most part not decorated, but exposed corrugated iron cladding (see the photo). The rectangular hall spans a space of around 40 by 80 meters, thus enclosing around 3,200 square meters and thus offers space for up to 2,000 pilgrims. The construction of the hall-like sala began in 1996; the temple building was officially opened in 2007 on the occasion of the 80th birthday of King Bhumibol (Rama IX) . The complex construction work (building and Buddha figure) is said to have been around 60 million baht ; Queen Sirikit participated with two million baht from her private box.
As a central sanctuary, the sala houses a limestone seated Buddha about twenty meters wide and nineteen meters high at its front . The material for the figure was brought together from nine countries and three different continents. This Buddha figure is a copy of the Buddha sitting outdoors in front of a red sandstone rock wall in a forest temple, which is known as Wat Pa Rong Than (about " Koehler Temple ") (Thai: วัด ป่า โรงถ่าน ) and in the south of the eastern Thai island of Ko Chang (the "elephant island") is - in the municipality and district of Ko Chang (Thai: ตำบล เกาะ ช้าง or อำเภอ เกาะ ช้าง ) in the province of Trat Trat (Thai: จังหวัด ตราด ). This temple was described on the website of Wat Pa Huai Lat , but has not yet been documented in more detail. - In the spacious hall of honor there are also a number of seated figures of highly revered monks who are covered with gold leaf by the pilgrims, other decorative objects and stalls selling lotus flowers, incense sticks, etc. for performing the traditional Buddhist tham bun .