Wat Klang Temple Historic Mondrop - After the Flood - Nakhon Luang Thailand 2022

Wat Klang (วัดกลาง) (last restored mid-19th century)

Wat Klang is located on the south bank of the Pasak river about 1.2 kilometers northeast of Phra Nakhon Luang palace. It is an active Buddhist temple with a number of buildings, most of them modern apart from the mondop. The mondop is a small square-shaped building measuring 10.5 meters on each side.

Technically, the term mondop in Thai architecture refers to an open-sided pavilion containing a sacred object such as a 'footprint' of the Buddha, though the term is generally used for square-shaped halls with pyramidal roofs. At Wat Klang, the roof of the mondop is shaped like a two-tiered pyramid with a stucco pattern along the ridgelines that resembles a naga's crest. On each side of the pavilion is a doorway flanked by false columns, surmounted by a semicircular arch motif with a circle beneath, a distinctive design that was likely borrowed from western style buildings. As this motif grew in popularity during the reign of Rama III (1824-51), and even more so during the reign of Rama IV (1851-68), historians believe the current form of the mondop dates from that era.

The interior includes mural paintings that depict the cremation of the Buddha and his release into nirvana.

In the Ayutthaya era Nakhon Luang was an important waystation on the road between Ayutthaya (13 kilometers southwest) and the Temple of the Buddha's Footprint at Saraburi, about 34 kilometers to the northeast. The impetus to construct a mondop may have been derived from the presence of a large mondop at the site in Saraburi.

Due to heavy rains during this years monsoon season the Mondrop was flooding, damaging the murals and the standing Buddha inside the building.

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