Bridge to Redemption

One of the more boldly interesting places we visited while in Chiang Rai earlier this month was the famed White Temple, aka Wat Rong Kuhn.

It's truly difficult to capture its visual impact in pictures, especially if you visit it, as we did, under the  brilliant sun of an early March day in northern Thailand.  The structures, gates, walkways are not all just an almost-painfully pristine white, but there are countless pieces of glass embedded along the edges of almost every surface.  To describe it as "dazzling" hardly comes close.  Stunning.  Breath-taking.  Beautiful.

It is meant, in part to be a depiction of heaven, a sinless eternity.

I will leave it to your own curiosity to read more about its background and history, which is an intriguing story in itself.  What I will remember most vividly is how stark the contrast was between all the brilliant purity depicted in the structures as we approached from a distance, against the disturbing rendering of hopelessness and despair that greets you as get up closer and walk across the first bridge of entry.

In the picture above you can only begin to make it out, just beneath the white rising tusks.

When you get closer, you can see the rendering of what I understand to be the Buddhist idea of eternity without redemption, as depicted by skeletal remains with faces animated by expressions of agony and horror.  

The unsettling effect is enhanced by a recorded voice, in several languages including English, instructing visitors not to linger on the bridge, but to keep moving.  There is a warning tone in the recording.  Or did I just hear it as such because I already felt uneasy?

All in all, my visit there provoked a sense of respect and awe.  The artist who has taken it upon himself to reclaim and restore this original place of worship has indeed demonstrated an incredible commitment to his own faith, and an honest rendering of good verses evil.  The walkway into the wat wasn't the only place where we were reminded of the horrors of sin.

If Christianity and Buddhism overlap at any point of doctrine and theology, it would be here.  In both understandings, sin is a big problem.  It's in the concepts of redemption and forgiveness where the two faiths differ.  Some have tried to distill it into the idea that Buddhism might spell forgiveness as "D-O", and strive for a redemption that is earned.  Christianity spells forgiveness "D-O-N-E" and looks to the cross to receive the redemption offered by the sacrifice of Jesus.  I don't know.  Maybe that's too simplistic.  But it has been said that if Buddha, who was intensely aware of his own sin, had met Jesus, he might have been so relieved.

Intriguingly, my visit to the White Temple has pressed me a little deeper into the Christian observation of Lent, as I look on the tormented faces below the walkway and realize my own sense of powerlessness to ever pay my way to redemption.  I find myself reflected in both the contorted images and the meditations of Paul on this when he says, "What a wretched person I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"

And then, in a sudden pivot towards joy, he exclaims, "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Christ Jesus our Lord!"  (Romans 7:24025)

While in Thailand, it is very important to demonstrate a great respect of places of worship and the practice of Buddhism in general.  I want to continue to express that respect here back home in Canada, and anywhere I am, of course.  I also find it intriguing how the intersection of faiths play out, and how it makes me more and deeply glad for Jesus.  

I am grateful for the opportunity to visit the White Temple.