Wat Yannasangwararam
The Wat Yannasangwararam Woramahawihan ( Thai : วัด ญาณ สั ง ว รา ราม วรมหาวิหาร , pronunciation: [Wat jaːnnáʔsǎŋwáʔraːraːm] , including Wat Yansangwararam or Wat Yan Sangwararam , in short: Wat Yan ) is a Buddhist temple ( wat ) in the province of Chonburi .
location
Wat Yannasangwararam is located in Tambon Huai Yai, district ( Amphoe ) Bang Lamung in the province of Chonburi in the eastern region of central Thailand .
History and meaning
Wat Yannasangwararam honors the memory of the kings Naresuan the Great (1590–1605) and Taksin the Great (1767–1782), who both defended the Kingdom of Siam against the attacks of the Burmese . The temple, which was only completed in 1976, is an important center of the Thammayut-nikai , an order of Theravada Buddhist monks in Thailand. Here the supreme monk patriarch Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara (1913–2013) is particularly venerated. The wat is also a Royal First Class Temple and has been under the patronage of King Bhumibol Adulyadej since 1982 . The king is said to have supported the structural expansion of the temple with more than 270 million baht .
In addition to a school and a hospital, the temple also has rearing and care stations for endangered wild animals.
Important buildings
On the extensive temple grounds, which are planted with rich tropical vegetation and whose gardens and parks are loosened up by a number of small streams and carp ponds, there are seven small hills - embedded between a lake and the pavilion-crowned mountain top of Buddha Pada Hill - numerous and clearly different buildings:
- On the Buddha Pada Hill there is a Mandapa in the Khmer style, visible from afar, with a Buddha's footprint . The pavilion can be reached via a 288-step staircase directly from the temple grounds below. From here, in addition to an excellent view of the facilities, there is also - further westwards - one to the coast of the Gulf of Thailand .
- Relics of Buddha and some of his disciples are kept in a white, about 40 meter high chedi , the interior of which is decorated with brightly painted stucco and is accessible on three floors.
- On and in the lake there is a wooden house in the style of a Swiss chalet , as well as shrines in Indian, Japanese and Chinese styles.
- Numerous statues of highly revered monks and a bronze statue of King Bhumibol Adulyadej together with his mother ( Sri Nagarindra ) are set up in the extensive park area of the area .
- However, the most impressive building in the complex is undoubtedly a temple that can be seen from afar. A largely unadorned, two-tier building with a square floor plan, which roughly corresponds to a cloister-shaped foyer, is grafted onto the center of a light gray gopuram decorated with rich stonework , which, however, does not serve as a gate tower here (as is usual in Indian sacred architecture). It is surrounded by four lower towers, which are also richly decorated and executed in a reddish sandstone color. All five towers are crowned by golden chedis on the top step - with the chedi, which closes the higher and central tower, in turn, four smaller chedis are added.
Chinese palace
On the southeastern bank of the lake, opposite Wat Yannasangwararam , is the Chinese palace temple Viharnra Sien ( residence of the gods ) or Anek Kusala Sala . It was built in 1993 by the Thai-Chinese people and dedicated to the king. The building is more of a museum than a temple, in which art and cult objects, antiques and religious statues from China and Thailand are exhibited - among other things, replicas of clay figures of the world-famous terracotta army from Xi'an are displayed here .
Monumental Buddha image
The work of art labeled Phra Puttha Maha Wachira Uttamopat Satsada (in Thai: พระพุทธ มหา วชิร อุ ต ต โม ภาส ศาสดา ) is a monumental work of art that was lasered into the artificially smoothed northwest wall of the rock named Khao Chi Chan and then gilded Outline drawing of a seated Buddha. It was built for the 50th anniversary of Bhumibol Adulyadej's accession to the throne in 1996, but is said to have been suggested by the king two decades earlier. The Sukhothai and Lanna style Buddha is 130 meters high and 70 meters wide at its knees; it is said to be the world's largest Buddha image. The outlines were lasered in just two days, but then the gilding work took several months. The construction costs were more than 160 million baht. In a beautifully landscaped park in front of the monumental Buddha image, several small pavilions invite you to meditate.
The colloquially as Buddha Mountain called Khao Chi Chan (also: Khau Chee Chan and Khao chinchan , Thai: ขา ชี จร ร ย์ , such as mountain nun Chan ) is located a few kilometers southeast of Wat Yannasangwararam . The mountain, but not the Buddha image, can be seen quite well from higher positions in Pattaya (e.g. from Buddha Hill there , from Pattaya Park Tower or from the heights of Ko Lan ).
Web links
- Page with photos about Wat Yannasangwararam at dhammathai.org (in Thai)
- Temple site (in Thai)
Coordinates: 12 ° 47 ′ 22 " N , 100 ° 57 ′ 30" E