291206 Wat Mai - the naga that ate that

That Chom Si, that is...






*CRUNCH* *MUNCH* *MUNCH* *BURRRRP*

291206 Wat Mai - misc

ໃບລານ bai laan (palm leaf) manuscript library:



Sticky rice offerings plastered everywhere:









Anywhere will do...

291206 Wat Mai - monkeys & demons

After covering the whole ceiling with stencils of scenes from the life story of Gautama Buddha, & filling the entire front wall with gilded stucco depicting the Vessantara jataka, the artists who decorated the front verandah still managed to squeeze in the epic tale of Pha Lak Pha Ram (aka. Ramakien or Ramayana) - onto the horizontal beams above...





...with every available bit of surface area so ornately embellished, the cat couldn't help but take a quick look down at its feet to check if it were stepping on even more artwork...

The demon king Ravana (Totsakan) fights Vali (upper left), the monkey king of Kishkindha, while wielding a whole array of weapons & holding onto Mandodari (Nang Mando) with his 20 arms:



Vali defeated Ravana & took Mandodari away. Ravana's teacher later snatched her back, but she was pregnant with Vali's child, who would be born as the monkey warrior prince, Anggada (Ongkot). A vengeful Ravana turned himself into a giant crab (left) to kill Anggada while he was bathing, but Vali (right) captured him:



Crabs are decapods, but the artist has given Ravana 14 legs in addition to two pincers, perhaps a reflection of his extra arms when in demon form?

Mandodari later bore Ravana a son, the demon prince Indrajit (meaning Indra's victor). He acquired this name after defeating the god Indra, shown here riding his elephant mount Erawan:



Indrajit (left) attacking Indra - above photo is of the section to the immediate left of this one:



Mandodari also bore Ravana a daughter, Sita (Nang Sida). Ravana got rid of the baby Sita in the belief that she would cause the destruction of the demons, but would later fall in love with the adult Sita & kidnap her from Rama (Pha Ram), the prince who had won her hand in marriage.

Hanuman (left), the leader of the monkeys, offers his services to Rama (second from left), after returning Lakshmana (Pha Lak, third from left) the bow that it had snatched away:



Hanuman & Anggada would help Rama search for Sita & battle Ravana to rescue her.

This beam has been damaged by rain seeping through the roof, like what has happened to ceiling stencils - the large bird (left) is either Sadayu or its brother, Sampati:



Sadayu tried in vain to rescue Sita from Ravana, & later informed Rama of her capture, while Sampati helped direct Hanuman & the monkey army to the kingdom of Langka, where Sita was being held. On their way to Langka, the monkey army had to cross a river. Hanuman thus ordered the monkeys to carry rocks over to construct a causeway:



The cat gave up trying to take clear photos of all the beams - it is simply too short, & had only 3X optical zoom & no tripod. During its 2008 visit, it managed to take a few more before it was called over to join in the morning chanting & offering of breakfast to the monks of Wat Mai to mark Boun Ok Phansa.

For other episodes of the story including the ending where Ravana is killed, see here & here.

291206 Wat Mai - Maha Wetsandon chadok

มหาเวสสันดรชาดก aka. Vessantara jataka, the story of the penultimate life of Buddha (before his rebirth as Prince Siddartha), covers the front wall of the viharn:




This story of the charitable Prince Vessantara who gave away every single thing he had, including his wife & two children, is recounted in a marathon recitation by monks & reenacted by laymen during the Boun Pha Wet festival in Laos & Isaan.

There are several pavilions, of which some probably represent the six alms halls where Prince Vessantara's mother distributed silver daily before his birth:




When the prince was older, he visited his mother's alms halls six times a month on the back of a sacred royal white elephant to distribute gold:



However, Prince Vessantara was banished from his father's kingdom after he gave away that precious elephant to another kingdom. He spent his last day in his father's kingdom giving away all of his possessions (totalling 700?), including slaves, horses & even more elephants. (For Boun Pha Wet parades, papier mache elephants & horses are made to represent these gifts; one temple in Sakon Nakhon even had a papier mache zebra.) The prince then left with his wife & kids in a chariot...



...only to encounter Brahmins who asked for the horses & chariot, which the prince naturally granted them. & so Prince Vessantara & his wife continued their journey into exile on foot, each carrying one child:



They lived as hermits in the forest beside a lotus pond. One day, the wife of a poor Brahmin, Jujaka, told him to get her two servants. Jujaka, who could not afford to buy any slaves, decided to ask Prince Vessantara for his children. The prince agreed, but his children ran away to hide under the leaves of the lotus plants in the pond. One child begging not to be given away, & the other hidden in the pond (bottom left corner):



Jujaka bound their hands with jungle vines & took them away:



Their mother was later given away to another Brahmin, who turned out to be the god Indra in disguise:



At the end of the story, the family was eventually reunited & allowed to return to the kingdom of Prince Vessantara's father. For details of the happily-ever-after fairytale ending, refer to the links above ;)

Wat Xieng Thong makes a cameo appearance in the stucco work:



More detail:



Some of the many animals - does anyone know their significance?




3D rhino that looks as if it's turning its head to glare at you:

291206 Wat Mai - porch

On the east side:



The gable shows the birth of Gautama Buddha:



Not sure what story the west gable depicts, but Buddha is holding an alms bowl in his left hand:



Stencilled in gold on the ceiling of the porch are pictures from the life story of Gautama Buddha...



...including his birth (upper left), the night when he was disgusted by the sight of the dancers, singers & musicians of the royal court asleep (lower left), & the evil Mara trying to stop him when he escaped from the palace on his horse Kanthaka to become a mendicant (lower right):



Not a square inch of the porch is spared from decorative detail:

291206 Wat Mai

aka. Wat Si Suvannaphoumaham, the town's royal temple. Suvannaphoum is the Lao romanisation of Suvarnabhumi, better known as the name of Bangkok International Airport. View of Wat Mai from Phou Si:



There used to be one scripture library each on the left & right sides of the viharn, but both no longer exist.

The front porch (below, left) of the viharn was added on later in 1891 to the viharn that was built in 1796:



The multi-tiered roof:




Inside the viharn:




Quite a bit of cleaning & dusting work for the monks & novices on duty ;)