Wat Pah Khlong 11 (วัดป่าคลอง ๑๑)

Thai. ‘Canal 11 Forest Temple’. Name of a Buddhist wat pah or forest temple in Pathum Thani, located in the tambon Beung Ka Sahm (บึงกาสาม) of the amphur Khlong Luang (คลองหลวง), in between the local north-south canals 10 and 11. Besides being devoted to the Buddha, the place is nearly entirely dedicated to the naga, a mythical snake, which is the Buddha's guardian and assistant. Edifices of this serpent are found all over the place, starting already at the main entrance gate, where it is represented with multiple heads, and a green elongated body that coils past the wooden posts of the gate and then all the way up to the top, with the tail end resting on the cross-beam. Though it overall has the characteristics of a cobra (fig.) it also has antlers akin to a dragon (fig.). The temple's ubosot is located in the middle of a pond and is surrounded by another four large nagas that guard the teak edifice (fig.). There are two nagas on either side of it. They flank the wooden edifice while the their tails are entwined in the middle in the middle of the island and on either side of the bot. In addition, there is a large naga in each of the four corners of the pond that are represented while spouting water from their mouths. The ubusot has rather unique bai sema, i.e. boundary markers at the eight cardinal points around the hall. Rather than made in the usual shape of a heart or bodhi tree leaf (fig.), here natural riverbed rocks are used, several with shapes reminiscent of a naga or a water wave, a clever allusion to the naga and its association with water. Inside, the prayer hall houses a Buddha image seated in the lotus position with a vitarka mudra. It is topped with a chattra or chat, i.e. a  multi-layered royal umbrella, and flanked by four disciples, i.e. two on either side. In the front of its doorway is on the right side a statue of Naak Manop, literally the ‘Human Naga’, a mythical creature with the head and upper body of a young man and from the waist down with the body of a snake (fig.), whereas on the left side of the door there is a statue of Phra Siam Thewathiraat, the guardian spirit of Thailand. See also TRAVEL PICTURE (1), (2), (3) and (4). 回