← All articles · Thailand · 7 May 2016

Pattaya, Thailand: The Sanctuary of Truth, a temple made entirely of carved wood

The Sanctuary of Truth on the Pattaya seafront in May 2016: a vast teak temple carved from the roofline down, still wrapped in scaffolding and still being built.

On our first full morning in Pattaya we drove a few minutes up the coast to the Sanctuary of Truth, and then stood there for a while just working out what we were looking at. It's a temple the size of a cathedral, built right on the water's edge, and every visible surface of it is carved wood.

Wide view of the Sanctuary of Truth in Pattaya, a huge dark teak temple with layered gabled roofs and hundreds of carved figures, a modern high-rise visible behind it — The whole thing from the side. That's a Pattaya apartment block peering over the roofline, which does rather undercut the timelessness.

The Sanctuary of Truth seen across a lagoon, with bamboo rafts and long-tail boats moored below and a flame tree in orange bloom in front of it — Seen from the water side, with a flame tree in full orange doing its best to upstage the architecture.

Carved from the roofline down

There's no plaster and no paint. The spires, the gables, the pillars, the doorframes and the figures crawling over all of them are cut out of wood, and the closer you get the more of it there is. From the far side of the garden it reads as one dark silhouette. From twenty metres away it turns into thousands of separate faces.

Inga in sunglasses standing in front of the Sanctuary of Truth, its many carved wooden spires rising behind her with the sea visible to the left — The spires climb in tiers, each one loaded with figures. Scaffolding was lashed to the front of it the whole time we were there.

Dileep in a white hard hat standing in the empty sandy forecourt of the Sanctuary of Truth, in front of rows of carved wooden figures, pillars and porches — The white hard hat isn't a styling choice. This is a working building site as much as it's a temple, and it has been for a very long time.

It's the best hour we spent in the area, and it's an easy add-on to the rest of a Pattaya day: the fossil garden at the Million Years Stone Park is inland from here, the naga staircase up Big Buddha Hill is south along the coast, and the town itself wakes up later. If you're temple-hunting in Thailand more widely, we've also got Bangkok and Chiang Mai.