Sala Keoku, sculpture park, Nong Khai.
Mundo Exchange and Laekplian Lokgatat take volunteers and friends to visit many places of interest. We go to homes of elder Thais, visit and learn at Buddhist wats or temples and farming projects and experience other Thai ways throughout Isaan. One particular attraction is the “Sculpture Park” or Sala Kaew Kou where visitors find the work of Buenleua Sulilat also know as Luang Pu.
Sala Kaew Ku also known as Wat Khaek is amazing. The place is overwhelming but enjoyed by children and adults alike. It is the twenty-year project of sculptor, mystic, artist, and shaman Luang Pu Boun Leua who was born in 1932.
Luangpu Bunleua Sulilat, the founder.
Buddhist and Hindu traditions, as well as elements of the sculptor’s own religious iconography are found at this park. Sizes of sculptures range from more or less life-size to gargantuan. Many of the faces on the sculptures are apparently based on the designer/sculptor’s own face as well as Buddhist and Hindu Gods. Guests may also view scenes from Ramayana. (Read more about the epic poem Ramayana at http://www.hindunet.org/ramayana/ ) Visually, notwithstanding the religious themes and traditional images, a part of my brain saw chessmen and playing cards.
Certain themes are expressed again and again, some very traditional: the Buddha in meditative postures and surrounded by protective spirit companions, the Wheel of Samsara, (Read more about the concept of samsara at http://ow.ly/2vuBs )and the idea that suffering and death are the universal fate of mortal beings.
Another theme, while appropriate to the Buddhist ideal of right action, struck me as the sculptor’s personal response to the negative reception he apparently got from institutional, official Buddhism: at the beginning of the circuit among the statuary was a very dignified elephant pacing through a pack of barking dogs, suggesting that people will give you trouble when you try to do something good; pay them no mind. Buddhist way.
The twenty-five-metre statue of the Buddha meditating atop the coils of the seven-headed Naga serpent will remain etched in my mind. The sinuous ferocity of the serpent-head’s tongues expresses the life and power of this image in a way I have never seen elsewhere. Throughout the park the Buddha is seen in the traditional postures: standing, with right hand raised in a gesture of peace, resting relaxed; with a variety of protective spirits, the companion monks in the forest, a worshiping woman, a woman touching the feet of the Buddha, a conventional gesture of respect in Hindu tradition, but not to be done in Buddhist practice.
Hinduism, by the way contributes much to the imagery of the park. Ganesha riding a mouse and the White Monkey stand near each other. Six- and eight-armed deities—-all expressions of Shiva—-guard the way to the shrine. The sculptor began his religious training in the Brahmanic tradition, which helps to explain the many framed pictures of Hindu deities in the shrine, as well as among the statues.
The idea that life is impermanence, suffering, and death I expressed in many ways throughout the park. One ironic understatement of this idea is a deliberately destroyed piece of statuary with an inscription eroded to unreadability. The centerpiece of the park is the wheel of birth and rebirth, guarded by the animals of the Chinese zodiac. The visitor enters the wheel through a monster mouth/birth canal. The axis is a stupa-shaped construction supported by three faces with a ring of skulls above. The spokes radiate from this axis, and the visitor follows a clockwise path lined with statues expressing the many possible roles humans have played or will play as they enter or leave the wheel: a royal person, a bureaucrat at a desk, a soldier with an automatic rifle, a bent old man, a student in the temple, lovers entwined, a pair of skeletons in the same posture, a school teacher, a pair of aged parents, bringing home to the viewer a truth that can sometimes seem a bit abstract when seen only through traditional or ancient images.
The shrine houses the body of Luang Pu, and the sculpture project awaits completion until his rebirth. There are pictures of Hindu and Buddhist images, bells to ring, pictures and personal items of Luang Pu, and a gift shop. Near the front of the park are testimonials to this idea: two brick frameworks for new Buddha images, one complete up to the waist and the other with a finished face and rebar where the faithful believe that hands will someday be completed.
As you leave Nong Khai heading towards Bueng Kan you will find Sala Kaew Ku in about 3 km. Luang Pu built his first and similar park in Laos very close to Vientiane at Xian Khuan in 1958. He was later in 1978 deported or quickly left for anti-social, maybe socialist beliefs and found more trouble in Thailand where he built this second park or tribute to his faith.
Buenleua Sulilat died in 1996 after illness and a fall from one of the sculptures. His body, now mummified, can be viewed on the 3rd floor of the shrine building. It’s a great experience and not to be missed while in Isaan Thailand. Call someone at Mundo Exchange if you need more information, or better yet come volunteer in Thailand with a great group of caring people.
Linda Danielson
About
Linda is a retired musician and writer. She welcomes new knowledge and expression with an open mind and happy heart. She writes as she travels and shares her observations about differing cultures.
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