During Songkran days this year, I had a very good opportunity to visit a temple which has just been awarded by the UNESCO as the Heritage Award Winner 2008- the Award of Merit- Asia Pacific. The temple is named "Wat Pongsanuk Nua". The temple is bestowed for its remarkably beautiful, delicate and unique Viharn (or วิหาร in Thai) or temple hall, where the "Phra Chao Phan Ong" (พระเจ้าพันองค์ in Thai or literarily meant "the thousand Buddha") is housed. You would see how much it is beautiful from the picture with this story. The style could not be seen anywhere else in Thailand, ad of course, in the world. This is why the temple has received the great honor even though it is just a small local temple in a small province at the North of Thailand, Lampang. Another reason why it was awarded for last year- 2008, is that the Viharn building shows that it has been reserved very well by the community, with the kind support of the "Little People" group and the local government sector. This shows the strength of the community in helping protect its heritage, which meets the principal aim of the UNESCO. The reason why this Viharn is called "Viharn Phra Chao Phan Ong- Viharn with the thousand Buddha" is probably from the the fact that the little thousand Buddha images were decorated around the Viharn. I feel that this is great.
