Wat Thai

Carlos OrtizMagic, Religion, and WitchcraftDr. Leanna Wolfe11/14/13

Here we have the entrance sign to the temple. It is written in gold painting and carved into a rectangular piece of stone above plants.

This is some of the architectural detail. It has a very elaborate design with the white walls and golden emplated stars on the ceiling. It seems like gold is a recurring color, which is also used to symbolize the sun or fire.

This is the entrance to the actual temple. There are two statues on both sides with an almost exact appearance. The theme color look to be gold, red, and white. Gold symbolizes the sun or fire, red symbolizes preserved life and is often used to paint buildings, white is used to symbole no secrets. The two deer on top of the door symbolize the park where the first buddhist teaching were taught.

Here is a statue of Thotsakan that was in front of the actual temple. It has a complex design and it has an unusual skin

color, green. The color green symbolizes balance and harmony.

Nearly all statues had food offerings, mainly fruit. The offering are their expression of gratitude. Offerings are believed to bring a rebirth or a healthier karma. The offerings are not needed by Buddha, but are given by people to be granted something positive.

This painting occupied an entire wall inside of the temple. It is a painting of another temple with a very similair design and there are many people performing rituals and socializing. The location in the painting is full of nature and a non rural area as opose to the location the temple is in, North Hollywood.

These are the main altars inside the temple. The statues are surounded by flowers, candles, and other statue like objects. There was no artifial light, only sunlight. The larger staue is painted gold and the other is painted a dark green. There are also boxes of eggs in front of the altars

These are wires coveres in colorful material. Hanging on them are name tags, probably people who have visited th temple or are frequently there. It’s design is similar to a christmas trees. They are decorated very colorfully and vibrant with colored paper, material, and flowers.

There was a table full of elephant statues. Elephants are a symbol of mental strength. A grey elephant represents a wild disastrous mind and white elephant symbolizes an experienced and powerful person. Elephants are also regarded as guardians of temples and of Buddha himself.