Located near the Mekong River in Thailand’s northeast, an area of the country the Thais call “Isaan,” Wat Phra That Phanom is the latest incarnation of an ancient temple whose origins are thought to date back to the 6th century AD. As noted in my Timeless Heritage of Thailand book, the temple’s famed chedi or stupa, though a 20th-century reconstruction, is emblematic of a kind of graceful coalescence of disparate elements and varied influences that characterizes so much of Thailand’s cultural heritage.

Wat Phra That Phanom

The chedi 's historical antecedents span nearly two millenia, with components that represent a fusion of eras and cultures. A Lao-style superstructure, rising above Khmer-style 9th- or 10th-century brickwork, is embellished with a 20th-century adaptation of a purnaghata—an eternally blossoming vase of flowers—an auspicious Buddhist symbol from India that first reached Thailand around the third century AD.
Window grillwork in the form of a meditating bodhisattva
The tip of the chedi 's spire is made of 240 pounds of gold.
Another view of the chedi
A miniature gold version of the temple's main chedi
The temple structures and their decorative elements must be among the most colorful to be found at Thailand's many Buddhist temples.
A small shrine within the temple
Intricately patterned brickwork
The multi-tiered umbrella, called a chat, above the Buddha image, symbolizes spiritual power.
Just beyond the temple's enclosing galleries, the everyday world whizzes by.