Wat Hua Lampong (วัดหัวลำโพง)

Thai. Name of a third class royal temple in Bangkok's Bang Rak district that dates from the early Rattanakosin period. It was initially named Wat Hua Lampong (วัดวัวลำพอง) with a different Thai spelling and sometimes transliterated Wat Wua Lampong. It is named after a former field in the area of today's Hua Lampong Train Station (fig.) which in the past had had herds of cattle in it that went about noisily, and was hence called thung hua lampong (ทุ่งวัวลำพอง), i.e. ‘wild cattle field’. The word thung (ทุ่ง), which means ‘field’, was dropped and the word hua/wua (วัว) changed into hua (หัว), which means ‘head’, both literally and figuratively, and the spelling of lampong (ลำพอง), which means ‘wild’ or ‘noisily’, was changed into lampohng (ลำโพง), which can mean both ‘loudspeaker’ and ‘bell’, and is commonly also transliterated lamphong or lampong. The temple's current name may hence be loosely translated as ‘Temple of the Head's Bell’ and besides to its historic location may perhaps also refer to the bell worn around a cow's neck, i.e. underneath the head, as can still be seen in some gilded statues of Zebu cows at the entrance of the temple. The temple's logo also has the depiction of a Zebu in it and is a silent reminder of this temple's original name and its historic location. In addition, the temple also organizes the collection of donations used to buy food for cattle, as well as donations to save them from being slaughtered by using the money to redeem a cow or buffalo's life. The name was purportedly changed in AD 1904, during a royal visit of King Rama V as part of the kathin phra racha thaan, i.e. the annual royal kathin ceremony, who renamed the temple to its current designation, though the temple was not elevated to a royal temple until in 2002, by King Rama IX. In the present day, Wat Hua Lampong is surrounded by tall skyscrapers (fig.), and both the ubosot and the wihaan, i.e. the ordination hall and the sermon hall respectively, are raised on a one-storey high platform, and in the back of the ordination hall is an additional raised platform with a medium-sized, bell-shaped stupa, known is Thai as a chedi. The spacious ubosot houses the Phra prathaan, i.e. the principal Buddha image, which is seated in the half lotus position and with a bhumisparsa mudra on an elevated pedestal similar to the base of a busabok mala. The inner walls of the ubosot are adorned with colourful murals depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha and of the jataka, and the door and window panels are inlayed with intricate designs in mother-of-pearl depicting kranok motifs, Phra Narai standing on Garuda, thevadas, and naga-heads. The principal Buddha statue in the wihaan is also seated in the half lotus position and depicted with a dhammachakka mudra. Both the principal Buddha image of the wihaan and that of the ubosot are flanked by images of his disciples Sariputta and Mogallana, all in a standing pose. The inner walls of the wihaan have murals depicting picturesque scenes of traditional Thai village and religious life, and the window panels are decorated with gilded lacquer, known in Thai as laai rod nahm, depicting characters from Thai mythology, such as the Ramakien. A the entrance of the wihaan stands a crowned Buddha in the pose of disclosing the worlds, which in Thai is known as pahng peut lohk (fig.). Statues and images of senior and famous Buddhist monks are found in a sala on the platform, as well as depicted in the murals of the wihaan. In 1996, Wat Hua Lampong was renovated for the occasion of King Bhumipol Adulyadej's 50th Anniversary of the Ascension to the Throne, and the seal (fig.) to celebrate the Kanchanapisek (กาญจนาภิเษก), i.e. the ‘Golden Jubilee’, was incorporated into the temple's restoration. The Bangkok volunteer ambulance service Ruamkatanyu (ร่วมกตัญญู), one of the capital's three well-known charitable organizations that dispatches first responders (fig.) to an accident or murder scene, and that collects and transports the bodies of the dead to the morgue, has an office (fig.) within the compound of Wat Hua Lampong, where people wishing to make tamboon can participate in merit-making coffin donations (fig.). Due to this, the local people nicknamed Wat Hua Lampong the Coffin Temple. See also TRAVEL PICTURES (1), (2) and (3), as well as PANORAMA PICTURE. 回