For those of you who have visited the spectacular 17th century Wat Arun (Temple Of The Dawn) in Bangkok, Thailand, which resides along the south side of the Chao Phraya river (opposite of the Royal Grand Palace and Wat Pho), then you probably know it for its distinctive group of 5 large Khmer style spires (Chedis) decorated with thousands of small porcelain tiles and seashells.
Photograph Copyright ©Marc Schultz 2016What many people have not seen at Wat Arun though is its main temple structure. This special building is set far in the back of the temple grounds and houses a beautiful cloister of Buddha statues running the length of the 4 sides of its interior perimeter. There are also some beautiful and ornate rooftop features made from wood and glass tiles on the outside of the temple above the main exterior temple wall (photo below).
Photograph Copyright ©Marc Schultz 2016When I went to Wat Arun last week, I was one of the few foreign visitors who actually went to the back temple structure where these beautiful rows of Buddha statues are kept. What’s also interesting is that on the granite platform below each of the Buddha statues are the names and photos of the individual family members who take care of and provide for the upkeep of each individual statue on an ongoing basis.
Photograph Copyright ©Marc Schultz 2016Besides me, there were many Thai worshipers there who were visiting the temple that day to pay their respects, make merit and receive Buddhist blessings from the Thai Buddhist monk who was present. I am guessing many visitors also don’t know of the beauty that awaits them inside this temple in the back of the Wat Arun grounds or they would have also come to visit it like I did. I hadn’t actually paid a proper visit to this temple in over 20 years and so I was also seeing these particular statues myself for the first time.
Photograph Copyright ©Marc Schultz 2016On the exterior of the adjoining temple building, which is the main Wat Arun ordination hall, you will see a pristine white wall running around the perimeter which houses the beautiful roof eaves and pagodas of the temple structure inside.
If you would like to see any of these images in this small series on Wat Arun with greater detail and resolution, then you are welcome to click on the photos themselves and each of them will load up a much larger 1800×1200 sized image of the photo in a separate window for you to see.
Photograph Copyright ©Marc Schultz 2016I shot all of these photos with either a Canon 24-70mm F/2.8 L lens or a Canon 70-200mm F/4 L lens. All were shot at either F/8 or F/11 and at ISO 100.
The images are also available for licensing for either personal or commercial use at their full 21MP resolution from a new stock photo website called Thai Fotos. If you are interested, you can click on the link here to be taken to the webpage where they can be purchased and downloaded.
If you purchase any photos from Thai Fotos then be sure to enter the discount code “MARC10%” for a 10% discount on the checkout page for all your image purchases on that website. Thai Fotos accepts both Credit Cards and PayPal payments.
If you have any questions about any of the above photos, or Wat Arun itself, then please feel free to post them below as always.