One day in Janurary when Anne was here (from Oregon) she and I biked outside of the city to a wat in the forest Wat Umong, which is built into the foothills of Suthep mountain and is heavily forested. One unique feature of the temple is the network of tunnels which give the wat its name - umong is the Thai word for "tunnel."The temple and its tunnels were built in the late 1300s. The temples were built for a highly regarded monk who was nonetheless a little crazy. The somewhat maze-like tunnels kept the mad monk from wandering off.
The monastery was later abandoned and wasn't used again until the 1940s. The brick walls of the mound are covered with moss and small plants. Other stone works are covered in moss and vines.
Just beyond the far edge of the mound is a rather ghastly, very emaciated seated Buddha image. This style of Buddha image was in style for a short time hundreds of years ago, but today there are very few examples of it still in existence.
There's a path near the main tunnel entrance is a curious collection of Buddha heads and other relics from various temples. This odd collection started when one of the temple's supporters rescued some broken images from an abandoned temple in a nearby province and bought them here. Now, apparently, when people run across such relics or have a broken Buddha they want to replace, they bring them here.
