Day 3: Blue Temple Chiang Rai

We spent so much time at the White Temple, by the time we arrived at the Blue Temple, it was very late in the afternoon. Fortunately this turned out to be the best time to see the temple, as the tourist buses have mostly dispersed, and we managed to experience the sight of the temple during sunset. The temple really looks beautiful at night and it was truly magical.

The Blue Temple, or more formally Wat Rong Suea Ten (Thai: วัดร่องเสือเต้น), is a temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand, known for its striking modern artistic design. The temple’s construction was initiated by the local community in 1996 to replace an old abandoned temple which previously stood on the site, though construction did not start until 2005. Its final design was realised by local artist Phuttha Kabkaew (พุทธา กาบแก้ว) or Sala Nok (สล่านก, sala being a northern Thai title for an artisan), who learned from Chalermchai Kositpipat while working on his famous Wat Rong Khun (White Temple). It is designed in an unconventional “neo-traditional” style of Buddhist art employing lavishly ornamented sculptures and psychedelic visual imagery.

It is very Instagrammable, and even though we arrived rather late, there were still plenty of tourists taking photos inside and outside the temple. We stepped out just before sunset and was able to obserbe the temple transform from it’s daytime look to a truly magnificent iolluminated structure framed by the dying light of the sun.