Day 2 Reflection: Yoda, Tony Stark and the Na’vi
Day Two, Chiang Rai. The day begun with us setting off to the white temple. The history behind the white temple is an interesting one and was really surprising to me. Ignorant me was thinking that it was an ancient cultural heritage built and designed hundreds of years ago with a cheeky artist drawing contemporary art inside it. Instead, it was a work of a great philanthropist.
Throughout the nineteen hundreds, Chiang Rai was always the poorer cousin of Chiang Mai. The temple which used to sit where the White Temple is today was the playground of the artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat. He would run around the temple and paint on the walls to the chagrin of the monks living there. Fast forward over 20 years, the temple was in a state of disrepair when he returned a successful artist. He decided to completely rebuild the temple with his own funds to invigorate his home town and as a form of respect to the temple. Thus, in 1996, the white temple was born and stands as it is today.
What I liked most about the temple was that the temple managed to be respectful but yet incorporate contemporary paintings inside it. Cartoons from various different western shows such as Star Wars, Iron Man and Avatar were painted within. I could almost feel the life of the temple and passion of the artist as he adds new characters to the walls. To date, it is one of the most amazing and interesting temples I have been to.
Charlermchai’s desire to give back to society by using his strength – art- struck me as amazing. Today, his efforts has played a large part in helping Chiang Rai’s economy. His actions reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:
“Strive not to be a success, but to be of value” – Albert Einstein
It is giants like him who inspire me to give back to society and I am glad to hear the story of one more whom I could use for inspiration. In the future, I hope to be able to, in the words of Sir Isaac Newton, stand on their shoulders to do the same.
After the White Temple, we made our way to Tiger Kingdom where we touched real tigers! It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip, having leaned on a tiger’s belly.