Chom Sawan Temple: A Unique Tai Yai Art Temple in Phrae
by Kontol Njeng
Jul 1, 2024
🙏Chom Sawan Temple is an ancient Tai Yai temple with distinctive features, housing numerous beautiful and valuable artifacts and antiquities.
🏡Built during the reign of King Rama V by the faith of the Tai Yai people who came to trade in Phrae and became wealthy. Out of their devotion to Buddhism, they collaborated to build this temple in 1894.
🏡During the Haw Rebellion in Phrae, the temple was neglected and fell into disrepair. Later, Jong Nanta, another wealthy Tai Yai trader, renovated the temple and constructed a Burmese-style stupa on the east side of the temple.
🏡Inside the temple, there is a large teak house with Burmese architecture. This wooden house serves as the ordination hall, vihara, and monk's residence all in one. The roof of the building has nine tiers.
🏡The interior is intricately decorated with carved patterns. The ceiling is adorned with colored glass and detailed carvings.
🏡The wooden pillars are lacquered and gilded, with some decorated with colored glass in Tai Yai patterns. The ceiling is also beautifully decorated with colored glass.
🙏Inside the building, there is a statue of Luang Pho San in the Mara Vijaya posture, made from woven bamboo and gilded. There are also ivory Buddha statues in Burmese art style, ivory scriptures or Patimokkha scriptures made by grinding ivory into thin sheets, inscribed with Burmese characters in red lacquer, and a marble Buddha statue enshrined on a beautifully decorated throne.
🛕The Chom Sawan Chedi resembles the Shwedagon Pagoda, with a Burmese-style stupa in the center surrounded by smaller stupas on all four sides, three on each side.
🌼There are also important antiquities, including stone flowers and other ancient artifacts.
🙏On Makha Bucha Day, around February each year, there is a traditional ceremony to worship the Chom Sawan Chedi, with activities such as cutting miniature pork belly flags, making flower cones from banana leaves, and weaving blankets for the chedi.
💥Chom Sawan Temple: Yantrakit Kosol Road, Thung Kwaw Subdistrict, Mueang Phrae District, Phrae Province
🌐Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/CdSzFZ7pQVKbBNfo7
🕗Opening hours: 08:00 AM – 05:00 PM
Post by Kontol Njeng | Jul 1, 2024












