"Beautiful" temple in Loei Provence

One can travel most anywhere in Thailand and find beautiful temples.... in fact, in some cities it would seem one can find a temple located on every block! Most are in the traditional Thai style with the steep pitched roofs and highly colorful exterior walls .... multi-colored small pieces of glass .... red, green, yellow, blue... which sparkle when the sun hits it...

Then there are other temples which simply are outstanding, as this one in Loei... Wat Phra That Si Song Rak .



The inside of the temple, with its massive brightly colored columns leading to the huge golden Buddha statue at one end, reminded me of one of the hieroglyphs painted massive stone temples of ancient Egypt.



The grounds, spectacular! Rather than a looking like a Buddhist temple in Thailand, these cement block building with there neatly manicured green grounds,some with bonsai type trees, could have been an Anglican Church nestled in the hills of the United Kingdom.



A visit to this temple could not be complete without visiting the tomb of the Abbott, whose dream it was to build this temple.



Like an Egyptian mummy of old.... the Abbott's body was enshrined in a gold covered casket made out of the trunk of a large tree.... the wax figure of the late Abbott sits in front of his mortal remains and stares out at the temple grounds...