Wat Chotikaram - |
|
วัดโชติการาม |
|
Address: |
|
|
|
|
Known as: |
|
|
|
|
Description: |
|
Wat Chotikaram, originally called “Wat Sam Chin”, was built in
1807. The door and window facades at the ubosot were embellished
with stucco design, with decorative blue-and-white ware and
Benjarong (traditional Thai five-colored ceremics). The door
panel of Vihara was splendidly engraved in the Chinese
door-keeper picture. The historical sites in the temple is the
3-room brick Vihara in ‘Song Rong’ (an architectural style,
which is a type of the monastery building surrounded by opaque
walls and a few windows.). Inside enshrined a principle Buddha
image on the pedestal. Mural paintings are seen on floors, and
ceilings, mostly about sections in Buddha life; his
confrontation with the Mara, Sattamahasatarn (7 places the
Buddha drank deep in his Vimuttisuk or great inner happiness
after the enlightenment), the Buddha’s visit to his former
mother at Daodeung heaven (the 2nd heaven out of 6 Deva
celestial sphere). Moreover, Wat Chotikaram also has a pulpit
from Ayutthaya period as well. Ajarn N. Na Pak Nam observed the
patterns, and regarded it as the early Ayutthaya antique.
Scholars claimed that it was the most ancient pulpit in this
area.
The ubosot is a brick building, with height to the
ridgepoles, but no any Chofa (gable), or Bairaka (toothlike
ridges on the edge of gable). The front has Palai (or a
veranda). At the triangle end of the roof was intricately
engraved works with Puritat Jataka (the 6th life out of the
Buddha 10 incarnations) design amid stucco patterns in flowering
and ornamental plant pictures. The façade ‘Jaranam’ was also
adorned with porcelains. These decorations were assumed to be
‘Phra Rajaniyom’ style, an popular art existing in the reign of
King Rama III.
The chedi, located between the ubosot, and
phra Vihara is a 20 indented cornered chedi. Up above the chedi
body, it was ornamented with yellow porcelains. The top has
layers of receding lotus mouldings. The shape of the stupa bares
the splendid resemblance to Chedi built in King Rama IV period
at Wat Po, Tha Tien pier.
The vihara is surrounded by
walls called ‘Kam Paeng Kaew’. There are little prangs (or
Khmer-style cornshaped stupas) at
the 4 corners of Kam Paeng Kaew. These prangs were
embellished with yellow porcelains like the chedi. This vihara
has reinforced concrete front and back balconies. The front door
panel was carved in Chinese door-keeper patterns, the same as
the patterns in Wat Nang Chee. The back door and window panels
were etched in tall vase designs, looking alike Chinese
oblation.
The mural paintings on the front wall of the
principle Buddha image was about Mara Pajon or the confrontation
of the Buddha with the Mara, as seen in the general mural
tradition in ubosot in early Rattanakosin period.
Ajarn N. Na Paknam therefore presumed that this vihara
must have been the ubosot before. Above such Mara mural
paintings were Thep-Choom-Noom designs. The upper most murals
were the paintings of the previous Buddhas, a popular mural
tradition in King Rama IV reign. |
|
Province |
|
Nonthaburi |
Direction: |
|
|
|
District |
|
A. Mueang |
|
|
City |
|
Bang Phai |
Comments: |
|
Official Web: |
|
|
|
Genre |
|
Temple |
|
|
Related links: |
|
|
|
Best exposure |
|
Afternoon |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rating |
|
     |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Opening time |
|
N/A |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Entry fee |
|
Free |
|
|
Coordinates: |
|
13.83334 N |
100.4927 E |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|