Thailand: Ho trai (scripture library), Wat Puttha En, Mae Chaem, Chiang Mai Province.

Thailand: Ho trai (scripture library), Wat Puttha En, Mae Chaem, Chiang Mai Province.

Wat Puttha En (???????????) is a typically northern Thai-style temple, established in 1868. It is chiefly remarkable for its small, wooden bot nam (????????) or ordination hall, built atop pillars in the centre of a square lotus pond. Such ‘water chapels’ are rare across Thailand. The newly renovated viharn is attractive but unremarkable, but behind, on etiolated red wooden piles, stands a northern-style ho trai (scripture library), decorated with red and gold lai kram patterns. Tucked away in a narrow valley, Mae Chaem (???????) must rank as one of the least accessible corners of Chiang Mai. Located on the westernmost frontier of the province, it is isolated from the main Chiang Mai valley by the East Thanon Thongchai Range dominated by Doi Inthanon (???????????; at 2,565m Thailand’s highest mountain), and from neighbouring Mae Hong Son province to the west by the Central Thanon Thongchai Range, including Doi Khun Bong (????????; 1,772m).

Album / David Henley/Pictures from History/Universal Images Group

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