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| A Wat is a Thai Buddhist temple or monastery.
In most cases it is not just one building, but a collection of buildings,
shrines, and monuments within a courtyard that is enclosed by a wall. |
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Chofah |
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Chedi |
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Prang |
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Mondop |
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Ho Trai |
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Viharn |
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Sala |
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Naga |
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| (c) 1996 - 2008 Web Sawadee Plc.
reproduction without permission prohibited. |
There are thousands of temples, or wat, in Thailand. Some of these
vary in style and size but according to the principles of Buddhist
architecture, the structures within a temple should include a bot,
or ubosot, for religious ceremonies such as ordinations; a wihan
to house various Buddha images and for laypersons to take part in
religious services; a Sala kanparien which is a large meeting hall
which is not only used for religious services but also sometimes
as a social or civic center; a mondop for storing the Buddhist scriptures;
chedi for housing sacred relics or images; a ho rakang, or belfry,
to sound the time for ceremonies, prayers, etc. and kuti where the
monks live. Some may also have a library, a crematorium and a school.
The
Bot (also called Ubosot) is the ordination hall of a Wat. It is the place
where new monks take their vows. You can recognize a building as a Bot by
the six boundary stones (Bai Sema) that define the limits of its sanctuary.
Bots are usually open only to the monks. The building faces east and usually
houses an altar and one or several Buddha images. The hornlike finial on
the roof ridge is called the chofa, representing the head of the garuda.
Chofahs
are the bird-like decorations on the end of the temple roofs. If you visit
the Museum of the Emerald Buddha near the Grand Palace in Bangkok you can
see examples of Chofahs displayed in glass cases in the ground floor and
have a closer look at them. Chofahs are often decorated with little bells
that tinkle in the wind.
A
Chedi (a different term would be stupa or pagoda) is a domed edifice, often
quite tall, under which relics of the Buddha or revered religious teachers
are buried. 
A
Mondop (also called Mandapa) is a baldachin structure that has in some temples
been erected above the library with the sacred Buddhist scripts. 
The
Ho Trai (also transcripted as "Ho Phra") is the library of the Wat. It is
usually a very small, highly decorated building. In the Central Plains it
often sits on columns in a pond . The holy scripts and sacred manuscripts
of the Wat are kept inside. 
