Wat Sothorn, Chachoengsao

[Highwayman]

I was in Chachoengsao recently and saw the new tall ubosoth of Sothorn Wararam Waravihan temple. Wow!

It looks as though it can't be too far off being finished. Anyone heard more about when it is expected to be open to the public? Am l right in thinking it is unusual for such a place to be enclosed with proper windows and doors? Looks like the sort of place that would be air-conditioned inside.

Saw only one other westerner among the hundreds of Thais there. This is going to be a big attraction for tourists when finished l would imagine. Anyone heard or seen what it is like inside? From the outside the building looks about finished, but a lot of landscaping to do outside.

*Mods, if this question is better suited to another branch then please move.

[Padkapow Guy]

I have been going there on nearly every trip to los since 1995 and everytime I am amazed that it is not finished.

I don't think they want to finish it because all the donation(baht) will stop coming in. The poor people of Thailand line up to give their money to this temple.

I hope I am wrong, but I think you could have built a whole city in the amount of time they have been working on this temple.

PKG

[sabaijai]

It's not uncommon for new structures at wat thiaw - tourist temples - to take many years to complete, awaiting sufficient donations earmarked for that building. At wat patibat (practice temples) the buildings usually go up quickly as the latter kind of monastery usually restricts new structures only to what is absolutely necessary.

Another way of distinguishing these two kinds of monasteries, in Thai, makes a pun out of referring to the practice wats as wat kammathaan (mental training wats) and the 'constantly under construction' wats as wat kammakawn (worker wats).

[Ajarn]

I used to go to that wat quite often when I lived in Phanat Nikom. What a mass of humanity at that place. I loved all the action going on, and all the gold leaf flying around..

Speaking of which, I remember a story some years ago of a gang that put some chemical on a piece of cloth which would somehow dissolve (?) the gold leaf and the cloth would absorb it, and this wat had already been hit a couple of times...