Wat Arun
— — porcelain catching first light.
Not only on a wall.
“A river temple on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, named for Aruna, the Hindu god of dawn. The central prang rises about seventy metres and is encrusted in broken Chinese porcelain — fragments brought to Bangkok as ship ballast in the early nineteenth century, pressed into the stucco to catch the light. The name is Temple of Dawn, but the great moment is at dusk, when the river turns copper behind it and the long-tail boats slow down to look. — from the studio
Wat Arun, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Wat Arun Ratchawararam stands on the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya in Bangkok Yai district. The site has held a temple since at least the Ayutthaya period in the seventeenth century, when it was known as Wat Makok. It was renamed for Aruna, the Hindu god of dawn, after King Taksin's army reached it at first light in 1768 and chose Thonburi as the new capital. The central prang was raised to its current height of roughly seventy metres under King Rama III in the early nineteenth century. The temple sits opposite the Grand Palace, a short ferry-crossing away.
The prang's surface is the temple's signature: tens of thousands of fragments of broken Chinese porcelain, set into stucco and arranged into flowers, leaves, and crowns. The shards arrived in Bangkok as ballast on Chinese trading junks in the early nineteenth century and were repurposed during the Rama III restorations. Up close the surface is a mosaic of dishware glaze; from the river it reads as a single ridged silhouette. Demons and monkeys from the Ramakien epic stand at the lower corners. The four smaller satellite prangs hold images of Phra Phai, the wind god, on white horses.
The temple opens daily from about 08:00 to 18:00, with a small entrance fee for non-Thai visitors. It is reached most easily by the cross-river shuttle from Tha Tien pier, a three-minute ride that costs a few baht. Visitors may climb the steep stairs partway up the central prang for a closer look at the porcelain work and a view back to the Grand Palace. Modest dress is required: covered shoulders and knees. Late afternoon is the favoured hour, when the western light hits the prang and the river behind it turns colour for the boats coming home.