Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham, Luang Prabang

Oth­er­wise known sim­ply as Wat Mai, this is a fairly large tem­ple com­plex. The main tem­ple is unusual in that it has a five-tiered roof. Each tier is fin­ished with a naga finial and the very top tier is dec­o­rated with a 3-spire dok so faa, or metal roof dec­o­ra­tion. The low­est roof sweeps nearly to the ground, which makes the roof struc­ture the most promi­nent exte­rior fea­ture of this wat.

To say that is not to dimin­ish the extra­or­di­nary art­work of Pae Ton who, in the 1960s, cre­ated the golden bas-reliefs around the front entrance of the sim. I took quite a few close-up pic­tures, the detail is fan­tas­tic. One of the sto­ries depicted, accord­ing to Denise Hey­wood in Ancient Luang Pra­bang is the Vis­san­tara Jataka, the story of the last rein­car­na­tion of the his­tor­i­cal Bud­dha. These bas reliefs also depict images of an idyl­lic daily life with the bot­tom filled with images of farm ani­mals includ­ing water buf­falo and pigs.

This is an active wat. When we arrived there was a very friendly young monk sell­ing post­cards on the veranda and many oth­ers loung­ing about on the grounds. The inte­rior is filled with numer­ous Bud­dhist stat­ues and long-boat para­pher­na­lia. One of the build­ings houses the two long­boats used for the reli­gious boat races dur­ing Lao New Year. I would love to return for Lao New Year one day to see this and other cer­e­monies passed down over the cen­turies. The Pra Bang Bud­dha is also brought from the Royal Palace to this tem­ple dur­ing the Lao New Year cel­e­bra­tion for its annual three day rit­ual ablu­tions, a reli­gious term mean­ing washings.

The small chapels and stupa close to the entrance look as though they may have been left as is when this wat was ren­o­vated in the 1940s and 1960s. It gives us a fla­vor for the age of this tem­ple com­plex, built in 1804.