Day Four: Black or White

Today was an interesting day because of contrast between the two sites we visited, the White Temple and the Black Temple.

We visited the White Temple first. As its name suggests, the White Temple is indeed painted mostly white or off-white. It is a majestic piece of architecture adorned with glittery, eye-catching tiling and intricate designs all along its walls and roof. As Prof Walsh put it, the temple looks like something out of Pixar’s animated film “Frozen”. To enter the temple you must cross a short bridge built over a valley of white, ceramic hands reaching out from the floor towards the sky. Some hands are normal while some look mangled, mutated and frightening. All are painted a pale white colour, giving the entrance area to the temple a rather sinister feel, appropriate to what this section was trying to represent – going across hell to seek sanctuary and healing in the temple.

There was one hand with a single red fingernail – our tour guide explained that this was to represent women. It is their belief that far fewer women will go to hell compared to men. Women are seen to be more pure, good and virtuous, and overall more clean than the men. This was interesting to me, because I have heard of other cultures and religions in which women are the “dirty” gender. A quick Google search revealed that this is especially so during the length of a woman’s menstrual period. Women are then seen as impure and cast aside away from their family. For Hindus, women are given restrictions such as being unable to bathe, enter places of religious worship, ride a vehicle or animal such as a horse or elephant, or even simply talk too loudly during this time. I recalled Monday’s lecture at CMU, from which I learnt that historical Thai society was matriarchal in nature. For example, the women choose their partners based on their leg tattoos and how impressive they are in trying to woo the women. If a male wishes to marry a woman, he must bring his elder, usually the grandmother, to approve. He will then move into the lady’s house instead of the other way around, which is what happens for the Chinese. It’s interesting to me how the Thai culture seems to stand out in being biased towards women instead of against, compared to other cultures.

Returning to the temple and my observations, I found it also interesting to learn from the tour guide about the single golden building in the compound. Surely gold is more precious and thus more important and revered than silver, right? This would mean the golden building should be a restricted area. Yet the tour guide informed us that far from being a higher order place of worship, it housed the toilets! Of all things! This quite astounded me – why the grand gold colour then? Here I was challenged again in my traditional ways of thinking, something that was quickly becoming a common phenomenon during the trip. The gold colour actually refers to greed, humanity’s insatiable hunger for the greatest riches and wealth. This greed is considered “dirty”, and the colour is hence deemed fit to be used on the lavatories. Furthermore, the act of using the toilets to relieve oneself can also be seen as a purging of “dirty” things inside of your body and your soul. Ultimately, it is still a form of cleansing, healing and making peace within yourself. What a unique and fascinating view! I had never thought about the colour gold like that before and was pleasantly taken aback to learn and understand this new perspective.

My biggest takeaway from the White Temple, however, was with regard to the contention between the White Temple serving as a place for religious worship and its function as simply a work of art, a tourist attraction and income generator for the village nearby. The artist who created the temple does not accept donations, not even after the 2014 earthquake that set his work back by a few million dollars. He refuses help from the public or from the King; he created the temple for the King, to give back to the village, and to give back to the religion. All he wants is for his work to be well utilised and appreciated, and he does not want to make any profit from it for himself. Especially for the as of now still empty and unused cremation hall, which is meant for those villagers who have done much good in their lifetimes and contributed greatly, but have neither the funds nor family for a proper cremation. These heroes may be cremated and laid to rest in this hall specially created and currently reserved for them.

From an artistic perspective, the artist created the White Temple completely from his own imagination. It is a unique, original work of contemporary art, set apart from any other temple in the world. He did not do any of this for his own glory – he does not send his creation for competitions or promote it to art enthusiasts. This seems admirable, but to be honest I feel somewhat confused and mixed feelings about this. It’s hard to accept that the artist wants to glorify and give back to those entities and people just for the sake of doing so. I felt almost a sense of fakeness and insincerity about the place; something feels almost wrong about it. Maybe it was the loud announcements or instagram-snapping tourists disrupting the quiet and peace I have come to associate Thailand with. I understand that the intentions of the artist are good, and I respect and admire his goodwill and generosity. I understand that the revenue the White Temple generates for the village must be a huge help to them as well. But the temple, with its many tourists and even a gift shop, feels more like a tourist attraction now – almost like a theme park minus the entrance fee. It feels most like, and I can appreciate it most as, a piece of contemporary art with religious undertones or at most founded by and based on religious worship. It certainly does not feel like a place for religious worship. The noisy crowds aside, I find it hard to imagine worshipping or praying in a temple which interior walls have modern, pop culture heroes like Keanu Reeves from The Matrix, Michael Jackson and the Minions on the walls, to name just a few. Our tour guide told us this can be interpreted many ways – to represent impure thoughts and distractions, or to appeal to youths, or even to represent how heroes come in any form these days. While I respect this artistic decision and was quite amused by it, it didn’t feel right for worship. Put it this way: if I were a Buddhist in need of a place to pray, chant or simply have some quiet time, the White “Temple” is not a place I would go to.

The Black “Temple” again, did not actually feel like a temple to me. That said, its atmosphere was more peaceful and pleasing to me on the whole. It’s actually a collection of 36 small houses in which the art collector who created it placed certain art pieces. The entire place is somewhat themed, with a general dark, black look and sometimes even sinister elements like crocodile skins, animals heads and even live animals – a big owl and a gigantic python received a lot of attention from us. On the whole it’s an art collector’s art gallery, but a unique one in that even the layout and placement of the pieces is careful and strategic, such that the entire compound feels almost like a piece of art as well. It feels like art within art.

Interestingly, although the Black Temple had far fewer religious connections, it felt more cultural and I felt more at peace. I later learnt from a friendly family from Naan in Northern Thailand that elements such as certain pieces and the roof designs were tied to Chiang Mai’s cultural heritage, but other elements like the animal skins were actually just the artist injecting his own personal take into his creation. It fascinated me how the Black Temple could not be defined in simple terms – it is not just an art gallery, isn’t cultural or historical enough to be a museum, and is certainly not a temple for religious worship. Similarly, the White Temple didn’t quite feel quiet or calm enough to be a temple, not extravagant enough to be just a tourist attraction and pure money-maker, and yet it was not without an intended religious function and therefore not just a piece of contemporary art. Both of these temples could not be tied down in a definition, but I would say that both are certainly some form of art in their own respects. I felt I enjoyed my visit to the Black Temple more because of the more peaceful ambience, but the White Temple certainly had a “wow” factor and was a unique experience.