Friday, July 23, 2010

Thai temple decoration

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I don't have much to say about this photo. I found it on the entrance gate to a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai and I did not really find what it represents.
The two little beings on both side of the seal look like Garuda, or Hanuman. I'm not really sure.

I would appreciate if someone could help me with the symbolism of this decoration. Thanks a lot!

UPDATE: Thanks to @fookied on twitter for telling me it's the King's seal.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Daniel, you are right about the Hanuman, though you need a scholar to tell you which one. This symbol was used to celebrate the King's 60th birthday and the writing at the bottom says, "Celebrates 60 Years on the Throne in 2549 AD". I guess you know that the current year is 2553 in the Thai calendar, so 2549 was 2006. You will see it in many other places, like schools and government buildings.A full explanation is at http://bit.ly/ckxbgn which you can get Google to tranlate.

Daniel N. said...

Wow thank you very much Barry for the full explanation!

I didn't think it would be related to the King, I was more thinking about religious symbols. Good to know!

Really appreciate the info, cheers!

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