Yet another fun feature of Wat U Mong is that it seems
to be the place where broken Buddha images are taken
when they are no longer wanted. There were ancient heads
like these as well as recent plastic hello kitties. Well, you
can't just throw them in the trash!
Another delight were the frequent and randomly placed
words of wisdom tucked away in quiet little corners
throughout the temple grounds. I loved that some
were in English.
There were really ancient pictures painted on some
of the walls. These date from the 14th century and
are in such good condition largely because the wat
had been abandoned for centuries. It wasn't until
the 40's that it was reinstated and became a monastic
community again in the 1960's.
The second best thing about this wat is the
tunnel system under the main chedi. Legend
has it that the tunnels were built for a popular,
charismatic monk who was also a little crazy. This
kept him from wandering.
Probably the most obvious reason I liked
this temple was that it was situated in a forest
and yet still near the university and the rest
of the city. It was good to be in the green and
shady coolness. We arrived early by song
theauw and were awed at the stillness and
sense of antiquity.
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