Perhaps if Chiang Mai’s Wat Duang Di was larger my main post on the temple would have been lengthy enough to include these shots. But then again maybe not. Tradition dictates that if you are posting an article about a temple the accompanying photos should show the main buildings, the grounds if extensive enough, hopefully the main Buddha statue or at least the altar area, the wat’s main or sole chedi, and any other buildings or features the wat is known for. Those are ‘establishing’ shots and they help fix the temple in readers’ minds. But they are seldom the photographs that remind me of a temple I’ve visited.

It is the smaller details that bring back memories for me. A pile of ceramic roof tiles baking in the sun, still waiting to be installed, shouldn’t be the shot that immediately reminds you of a specific wat, but it does. When you get down to it, if you’ve visited dozens of temples in Thailand, few Buddha statuses are so unique that you can place that image at the wat it belongs to. But those roof tiles, for example, as common as they are can be just the image that brings your experience back to mind. In the case of Wat Duang Di those tiles symbolized the community’s pride in their temple and the most recent renovations being done at the time I visited. As unspectacular as the wat was, it was that obvious pride that gave me a sense of the temple’s worth to the neighborhood and made the visit a memorable one.

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