Wats are Buddhist temples built in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Wats are usually made up of 9 main buildings, chedi, vihear, mandap, sala, bot, hall, drum tower, bell tower, and the multi purpose hall. These buildings each have a different purpose.
The chedi holds sacred Buddha artifacts, and has a wide round base that becomes a point as you look at it from top to bottom. One of the chedi at the Bangkok Grand Palace is held by demons, that look evil, the chedi at the palace is also covered with golden tiles.
A vihear is a prayer or meeting room. It is more open, and is a slightly raised platform under an elaborately decorated roof, held by pillars. Mandap are more closed buildings that are adorned with Chofa at the peaks of the pediments. Chofa are wooden birdlike sculptures, covered in golden tiles, representing the half man half eagle mythical creature. A mandap holds religious texts and objects. Here too, you had to take your shoes off. Buildings called “sala” were places for relaxation and other activities.
The bot is the holiest building in the whole temple, new monks take their vows there. There is usually 8 cornerstones to ward off evil. The hall is where Buddhist texts are kept, also, the hall sometimes has a mural telling a religious story. At the Bangkok Grand palace, one of the murals told the story that we took as the Chinese story called “Monkey King” or in Chinese “Sun Wukong”.
Drum towers and bell towers are very similar. Drum towers are used to communicate by beating drums. Bell towers are shorter and are used to signal monks to prayer. The multipurpose hall is for many things, and some historians think that it may have been a study hall in the ancient times. The multipurpose hall too, is sometimes decorated with murals. One mural we saw in the Bangkok Grand Palace depicted what looked like a story of the origin of Buddha.
Many Wats are grand and adorned with small tiles, on the inside of some buildings, you may find murals covering the whole place, such as the temple of the emerald Buddha. I also visited Wat Pho, this temple is very unique, the grounds are very large, the chedi are more square than round, and in the main building, there is a giant reclining Buddha covered in gold.
