Amazing Place In Thailand Called Sanctuary Of Truth
Although the visit to the elephant sanctuary was my number one highlight during my visit to Thailand, I also visited an amazing place called Sanctuary Of Truth. Although not an ancient temple like Angkor Wat or even a more contemporary one like Wat Phnom in Cambodia, Sanctuary of Truth does not function as an active place for worship. It is however, full of themes from different Asian religions including Buddhist, Hindu and various Chinese religions representations as well.
The amazing thing about Sanctuary of Truth is that the entire structure is made of wood with extremely detailed carvings throughout. But because the wooden building is exposed to the weather elements, there is deterioration throughout which requires different sections to be replaced with new ones constantly. So the Sanctuary of Truth is more or less in constant renovation with onsite workers making new carvings to replace old ones all the time. This is why all visitors are required to wear construction hardhats whenever inside the structure. Upon arrival, all visitors must take a paid guided tour that is available in multiple languages which starts by going through a separate smaller building where the skilled onsite workers are busy making new carvings.
Before going inside, our tour guide showed us some of the outside which had very detailed carvings. No wonder why these have to be replaced over time.
The detail inside was just as mind boggling and at times I felt it was actually an overload of detail as it was pretty well continuous throughout the structure. But one cannot help being totally impressed with the craftsmanship here.
Once inside, visitors can break away from the tour group if wanted. I sometimes did that in order to shoot video and take photos but returned to my tour group along the way. Here’s the video I made from my visit.
The tour guides are great but much like with Angkor Wat, they provide a bit too much detail than I really like so this is a place where I like to explore on my own which I had the freedom to do so once inside.
The Sanctuary of Truth is actually quite large and once inside, one can see just how spacious it is with its high ceilings.
There are no windows here so any wind and rain will blow right inside through the openings of the structure as there were several balconies exposed to the outside.
Just outside the main structure, there is a nice Buddhist garden with more statues plus a bell gong we could ring. Given that the Sanctuary of Truth and the garden is right by the ocean made this place so beautiful and peaceful.
One thing I didn’t care for which they had outside were opportunities for guests to take an elephant ride. If you already saw my last post about my visit to the elephant sanctuary, then you already know that elephant riding is not considered ethical. But despite this, the Sanctuary of Truth is definitely recommended for a half day visit if you are going to be in Thailand.
To see video footage of the Sanctuary of Truth without my commentary, see a special In Harmony lyrics music video by Unity Power Force shot at this special place.
