Wat Thaton (วัดท่าตอน)
Thai. Name of a Buddhist
hilltop temple in the sleepy town and
tambon
of
Thaton,
located along the
Kok River (fig.)
in the
amphur
Mae Ai,
in the far north of
Chiang Mai
Province
and bordering
Myanmar. The temple's
courtyard features some statues of
Kuan Yin,
as well as two giant
Chinese dragons,
one in
gold and one in silver (fig.),
akin to the silver and golden
trees called
ton mai ngeun ton mai thong
(fig.),
whereas the main building of this temple complex consists of a
pagoda.
The inside of the
pagoda
features a labyrinth of corridors, halls and
niches, that
exhibit a rich variety of oriental
artifacts on
Buddhism
and mythology,
including a number of rather unique
Buddha images,
many of which are from
different countries and areas all over Asia and quite a number that
display rare poses and
mudras.
There is also a
winding
staircase shaped in the form of a
dragon's
body leads to the upper
chamber, that houses a relic (fig.).
The
relic shrine is
flanked by
a golden and a silver dragon and
at each side of the shrine also
stands a Burmese-style guardian creature known as
nagah (fig.),
i.e. a legged
naga-like
mythological compound animal, one in silver and one in gold
(fig.).
See MAP.
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