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When you visit Chiang Rai’s famous white temple, Wat Rong Khun, you don’t expect to see the typical naga guarding the temple’s stairways. And architect/artist Chalermchai Kositpipat doesn’t disappoint. Elsewhere you know it’ll be naga, even when it is really markara or mom instead. That’s cool. I think I’ve got them down now. At least 90% of the time. Except for at Wat Lok Molee in Chiang Mai.
Out front of the wiharn there are naga. And a pair of mom show up at a smaller building off to the side of the compound. But out back of the wiharn they’ve gone with a motif I’ve yet to see in use at any other temple. A pair of snail shells, possibly stylized nautilus shells, flank the stairs there. There’s a smaller set hidden at a unused set of stairs on the building’s side too. That theme may or may not have a meaning. But rather than hunt it down I’m just gonna go with that the wat decided to screw with touri who thought they were now experts on the mythical creatures employed at Buddhist temples to decorate staircases.
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These aren’t unique to Wat Lok Malee (incidentally a favourite of mine amongst CM Wats). They are to be found at Wat Phumin in Nan, and some other Wats around the North. They must be a Lanna thing. Sorry, I’ve no photos to link to, because I haven’t uploaded any relevant ones to the net yet.
One of the suggestions I have heard is that they are, in fact, very highly stylised Naga but, as you point out, every long wiggly thing running up a staircase tends to be labelled a Naga.
Damn you CeeJay!
🙂
Seriously, thanks. But now I gotta track down what the symbolic significance of that motif is. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
I’ve had a quick look through my picutres and found three of these things. One is on the side door to Wat Lok Malee that you mentioned (which is not disused, by the way. I was there at night, when they were preparing the temple for Yi Peng, and the youmg novices were using it to go in and out)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgcman/8664087629/sizes/l/in/photostream/
One is at Wat Saimoon Myanmar, a Burmese temple inside the moat (South East corner, opposite end of Bumrungburi to Buad Hat park)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgcman/8665187282/in/photostream
and the ones at Wat Phumin. One of the architectural features that Phumin is famous for is that it appears to be built on the backs of two Nagas with heads and tails decorating the doors on the North and South sides. The snail like decorations are on the staircases leading to the doors on the East and West sides and are therefore a major architectural feature. My feeling is that, when the King of Nan had Wat Phumin restored, he wouldn’t have put them in such a prominent position for no reason and that they likely have a significance beyond mere decoration.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgcman/8664087485/in/photostream
The ones at Wat Phumin and Wat Saimoon Myanmar are more stylised than those at Wat Lok Malee, but clearly still the smae form.
Thanks Ceejay, I guess then it’s a Lanna thing (heavily influenced by Burma as most are). Wonderful pix, thanks for including the links to them too – know I gotta get busy on Google and try to pin their meaning down.
Update: they are a highly sylised form of Naga. I emailed the pictures to London University, and had a reply saying this from a specialist in Lanna art and architecture.
Huh.
Well that was easier than turning to Google!
Thanks Ceejay.
I’d question just how that motif, even highly stylized, comes from Naga, but then Piccasso didn’t exactly invent abstract art.