First of all.....
Happy Halloween!
Today, I'll present to you the first Chinese temple in Thailand that I visited a few days ago. Its name is Leng Nei Yi temple. This temple is situated in Bangkok. It is well-known among a lot of Thai and Chinese people in Thailand.
The name, "Leng Nei Yi", is in Chaozhou Chinese language
Leng means dragon
Nei means lotus
Yi means temple
The official name of this temple in Thai language is Wat Mangkorn Kammalawat. We normally call this temple in short name, Wat Mangkorn.
Mangkorn means dragon
Wat means temple
So, this temple is also known as Dragon Temple Kammalawat in English language.
Most people love to go to this temple to pray for blessings and ask for good fortune in their lives.
Mangkorn or Dragon is the name of this temple, so at your first step, you will see colorful paintings of Mangkorn at two sides of the front doors of this temple.
And the following one is Mangkorn sculpture at the door inside the temple.
And at the top of the roof of the building, you will also find magnificent Mangkorns there!
(It was a sunny day. There were a lot of big white clouds in the sky. Ah! A very beautiful day indeed!)
In front of the main building (we call "Ubosot"), there are two Singha statues on the left and right sides.
And you will also see the other two big Singha statues and two small Singha statues inside the temple as well.
When going inside the temple, you will see 4 God statues wearing Chinese warrior costumes. They are really large and very beautiful.
Each of them has weapons, sword, harp, umbrella, and pagoda respectively.
These Gods are believed to protect the temple.
When you go to the center of the Ubosot, you will see 3 principal Buddha images of the temple. They look really sacred.
Most people worship these statues with well-decorated things and lit candles and incense to pay respect to them. It is believed that red and golden are lucky colors, so most of these things are in red and golden color.
Apart from "dragon" that you will find almost everywhere, there are also many "lotus" that you will see in this temple.
There are many more God and Buddha statues inside the temple.
The most popular God that people ask for the blessing is the "God of fortune".
The beauty of the architecture and paintings in this temple are also very interesting.
As there are many photos in this post already, I think it would be better if I will show you the photos of the architectures and paintings in my next post.
Please stay tuned. ;)