The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

A RAMBLE IN FOUR PARTS

Part Four: A Field of Buddha Crypts and a Hell Garden - Wat Phai Rong Wua

My friend John Stiles and I set off in my old truck up the road to the rural province of Suphanburi, to the northwest of Bangkok.  As usual, we had a vague idea, from a tertiary Google search, of what we wanted to see, but no particular plan: we would ramble.  We would eventually see several amazing Buddhist temple complexes, a Buffalo park, and a Farm Museum.  We never 'found' the actual town of Suphanburi, but we didn't care: we had a grand adventure rambling about the rural Thai countryside.

We found Wat Phai Rong Wua on the GPS and noticed it was on the road back to Bangkok.  Good.  There was suppose to be a giant Buddha image and something called a Hell Garden.  OK, Lets take a look.  The Buddha colossus was remarkable!

Just to give perspective . . . notice the size of this Buddha image compared to the truck parked below it!!!

We arrived at Wat Phai Ron Wua as the sun was beginning to set.  We knew we would only have about an hour of light left, and only about 20 minutes of good light.  We dashed across the street from the parking area and were immediately overwhelmed with the sight of hundreds of Buddha images!

The Buddhas were actually crypts, no doubt of the wealthy people who built the larger wat complex.

The Buddha images were all unique and many had been tended recently.

The last of the golden light of sun shone on the field of Buddhas.  I just started clicking away with my camera.

One of the most remarkable sights I have ever seen in my life!

Looking back into the golden sunset . . .

The tropical sun setting behind a field of Buddhas . . . Ah! Thailand!

There were a few exceptionally large Buddhas in the field.

Some of the Buddhas had been draped with cloth. We knew we were losing the light, so we moved on.  I must have taken hundreds of photos in this field of Buddhas!

A field of Buddhas in the last of day.

Next to the Colossus was this charming reclining Buddha shrine.

And then, quite by accident, we saw a gate across from the big Buddha . . . The Gate of the Hell Garden!

And by Hell Garden, I mean a garden of Hellish statuary!

There were many sections of the Hell Garden, each held stylistically different depictions of all the horrific things humans do to themselves and each other.

Some of the statuary were very amateurishly made.

There were places where it looked like whoever made these awful beings had run out of ideas and were just being nutty.  I guess making a Hell Garden can have that effect on a person.

I hate it when this happens. [You KNEW I was going to have to say that!]

Another style variation on the theme of suffering.

I'm not sure what kind of bad gamma you must have earned to reappear in the Hell Garden as a lizardhead.

I don't know if it means anything, but I own the exact same shirt.

The Hell Garden covered a very large area.  A group of Buddhist monks walked through pointing and laughing . . . I was so fascinated with their jovial attitude that I completely forgot to take their photo!

There was a small structure within the Hell Garden that held what seemed like offerings.

There was even a row of Buddha images . . . but it was hard to tell if these weren't depictions of 'fallen' Buddhas . . .

When we had seen enough human suffering we left over the bridge we came over.

It had been a wonderful day that left us with fabulous images running around our heads (and on our storage cards!) . . . and many questions left unanswered.