---
node: wat_rong_khun
type: art
slug: wat_rong_khun
title: "Wat Rong Khun"
lead: "Wat Rong Khun is a contemporary Buddhist temple complex outside Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, widely known as the White Temple. The Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat began it in 1997, and construction continues today."
published: 2026-07-11
updated: 2026-08-27
change: "Rewrote the opening body section so that it no longer restates the page's own lead."
previous_hash: "75cb80b073fb19ed9408ef229486b948133590434b401f1939955a97699e4772"
requester: internal
reason: "The section repeated the lead, so the first thing under the first heading was text the reader had already read in the search result."
image_file: wat_rong_khun.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wat_Rong_Khun_-_The_White_Temple_at_Chiang_Rai.jpg"
image_author: "JohnoPolo"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

Chalermchai Kositpipat began it in 1997 on the site of a decayed local temple, paid for the work himself, and has treated the whole complex as one artwork still being made; about nine buildings are planned. Visitors reach the hall across a bridge over a field of outstretched hands — the reach of desire, left behind at the threshold. The white plaster and the mirrored glass set into it stand for the Buddha's purity and for wisdom, and the one gold building on the site is the lavatory, because gold is for the things of this world. The murals inside put burning towers and film characters into the traditional cycle of rebirth.

## Description

The buildings are brilliant white — a colour the artist associates with the Buddha's purity — and their surfaces are inlaid with mirrored glass. The approach crosses a bridge over a field of sculpted reaching hands, staged as the passage from desire toward enlightenment. The murals of the ordination hall are known for mixing traditional Buddhist iconography with modern and pop-culture imagery.

## History and legacy

The temple was damaged by the 2014 Chiang Rai earthquake but was repaired and reopened to the public. It has become one of Thailand's most visited modern landmarks.

**This page was corrected.** Rewrote the opening body section so that it no longer restates the page's own lead.

**Why.** The section repeated the lead, so the first thing under the first heading was text the reader had already read in the search result.

**Who asked.** The Media Division itself.