Wat Phumin
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Nan's most famous wat is renowned for its cruciform bôt that was constructed in 1596 and restored during the reign of Chao Ananta Vora Ritthi Det from 1867 to 1875.
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[edit] Outside
It is the only built temple as if it were on the backs of two immense snakes (or Naga).
Each of the four entries is preceded by a small corridor surmounted by a point shaped finely decorated (underlining the royal origin of the temple) structure and is equipped with smoothly carved doors, with Chinese demon guards in the East, flowers in the North and forest life motives of Lanna style in the West and the South.
[edit] Inside
The wats interior is impressive. It is also a good example of Thai Lü architecture. The structure of the roof is supported by twelve teak pillars decorated with gold on black and red lacquer and elephants motives. The ceiling is also finely decorated. The flowered altar resting in the center of the bôt supports four Buddhas of Sukhothai style in the Bhûmisparsha-Mudrâ ' ("Buddha Invoking Mother-Earth, Bhumi to be His Witness " or "victory over Mara" - the hand pointed down to the earth with the fingers touching the ground), facing the four directions. The shape of their ears and of their nose shows a Lao influence. Aside to the altar, sits a splendid thammdat
(a dhamma seat used by teaching monks).
[edit] Murals
Murals of great value and well preserved illustrating the Khattana Kumara Jataka on the Northern wall and the Nimi Jatakas on the Western wall as well as scenes of the local life of the time when they were painted (Europeans can even been noticed - a probable reference to the arrival of the French to which the East of the Nan valley area was yielded in 1893. ) by Thai Lü artists were carried out during the restoration of the temple by artists at the end of the XIXe century. The style is rather distinctive quite far from the traditional style and is close to the murals of the Wat Phra Singh of Chiangmai. The setting is however, here, that of the culture and the everyday life of Thai Lü. The two most famous scenes are of greater dimensions than the majority of the other paintings: a man whispering to the ear of a woman (on the Southern side of the Western door) and the portrait painted on the side of the Southern door, which could be the king Chao Ananta Vora Ritthi Det's. Other natural size paintings on each side of the main entry are of Chinese influence which can be explained by the origins of Thai Lü.
[edit] References
- David K. Wyatt: Reading Thai Murals. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004, ISBN 974-9575-47-4
- David K. Wyatt (Transl., Ed.): The Nan Chronicle. SEA-Program Cornell University, Ithaca 1994, ISBN 0-87727-715-X
- Carol Stratton: Buddhist Sculpture of Northern Thailand. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004, ISBN 1-932476-09-1
- David K. Wyatt: Temple Murals as an Historical Source. The Case of Wat Phumin, Nan. Chulalongkorn University Press, Bangkok 1993, ISBN 974-581-856-4
