Visiting Thailand’s White Temple with kids can inspire some big questions. This distinctive attraction, just outside of the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai, is also a great place for families to visit. In our experience, it helps to be ready for some philosophical discussion.
“I know, worst parents ever,” I said, as Connor and I chuckled together. “All we did was take you to a terrible place like Thailand.”
White Temple tours
We toured the White Temple on our own. However, many tours are available to handle your White Temple experience, including transportation.
Worst parents?
One morning in Chiang Rai, Connor jokingly asked me if he could play Minecraft. Of course, I told him no; the kids don’t have options for recreational screen time until after 1:30 in the afternoon, and their school and daily lists have to be complete.
“I know, worst parents ever,” I said, as Connor and I chuckled together. “All we did was take you to a terrible place like Thailand.”
“Yeah,” said Connor. “Where the food is all sludge.”
We laughed some more. “And all the people are mean and there’s nothing pretty to see.”
“Yup. Terrible.”
In all fairness, the next day Connor may indeed have decided we were the worst parents ever.
Getting ready for a Thai temple visit
Visiting the White Temple means heading a little outside of Chiang Rai itself, to an area called Pa O Don Chai. We were able to get out there via a Grab rideshare. For our return trip, from the main temple area there are taxis. We could’ve snagged a taxi back to our hotel in Chiang Rai, but instead we went ahead to the Blue Temple, to visit both major attractions in one day.
The White Temple is a popular attraction, so it helps to be ready for crowds. There are also benches and calm, green space areas for anytime you need to recharge or have a break. Surrounding the temple area are cafes, shops, and convenience stores too, so it’s generally pretty easy to get refreshments, food, and souvenirs.
The White Temple and Blue Temple can be good to combine into one day
Chiang Rai is home to two Buddhist temples that are among the most famous in the country, if not throughout Southeast Asia. And we were going to both. (While I adored the Blue Temple, which we visited later in the day, I’ll save thoughts on that for another piece.)
We liked that we combined the two temples into one big sightseeing day. Depending on your overall time, and since the temples are in different areas, it can also work well to visit each on a separate day.
About the White Temple
The White Temple, located a little outside of Chiang Rai, is a massive complex. Technically, it’s still under construction, with completion of its current plans not expected until the 2070s. (So, if I decide to return to Thailand as a nonagenarian, I just might experience the full shebang as it was originally intended.)
This gleaming temple combines beautifully designed, eye-catching structures, rendered not only in white, but in small, silvery mirrored tiles. The overall effect is ethereal, and can indeed persuade you to ponder the finer stuff of life, the questions of what matters most to finite beings like us, and if we are putting our time and energy into what’s important. And if that doesn’t get to you, all the terrifying imagery and figures of torment just might do it.
Be ready for graphic depictions around religious themes
Like other religions, philosophies, belief systems, and mythologies, Buddhism has its own take on what folks in Christian-oriented backgrounds might call “hell.” While the White Temple can indeed get you to ponder the transcendental and divine, they’re not shy about getting in your face with the scary stuff too.
Scary demonish statues dot the landscape (including one that really wanted to go for scariest no-smoking sign ever). Approaching the temple’s main building, you cross a bridge over tormented bodies and souls.
Inside the central temple
Inside the central temple—well, for starters, we had to put the cameras away, as the temple rules don’t allow photography or videography inside the building. Tech stowed, we took in the floor-to-ceiling, corner-to-corner murals that depict a sort of hellscape, full of flames and conflict—not to mention pop culture, tech, pollution, and various other elements of life that one could construe as distractions or destructions.
As you make your way toward the Buddha statue at the far side of the temple, the images transition too: from distraction, to focus, to epiphany, to freedom and nirvana and all that dal.
A big experience can bring out big feelings, but that’s part of what makes visiting these spaces worthwhile and important
It’s fascinating and thought-provoking. But for Connor, it was also pretty overwhelming. Temples aren’t his favorite thing, for starters, and that’s fair enough. Above all, his big heart found the White Temple’s death and destruction imagery unsettling.
Other attractions on the White Temple grounds
After, while Jodie and Connor sat on a bench in the shade to decompress, Aster and I wandered to another part of the grounds.
A tall, broad, gold-covered building held exhibitions and events. The “Cave of Art” was still under construction.
But we could wander the constructed external cavescape, complete with wee waterfalls (and little statues that merited double-takes—such as the ones that turned out to be of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, complete with Splinter). She and I also rang all the bells that we still could ring (and, yes, Leonard Cohen and fellow Louise Penny fans, we forgot our perfect offerings too).
Big feelings become big questions
Back at the bench, Jodie and Aster went for a wander. Then Connor looked at me and said, “How can you achieve nirvana yet not desire nirvana?”
“Maybe that’s part of the process,” I replied after some thought. “Maybe the idea is you can figure out how to attain that clarity, but without being caught up in wanting to.”
Connor shook his head. “It still seems like it’s all built on a big contradiction.”
“It probably is,” I said. “Most things are. I think the idea is to get us to figure out a good way forward, even though things are full of contradictions.”
It was a complex conversation, made all the more so given the dad part of my mind that was blown away by the philosophical discussion I was having with my not-quite-11-year-old.
He might not like temples, but he didn’t shy away from the big questions they could bring to mind.
Optional: Same-day visit to the Blue Temple
After lunch, we visited the Blue Temple. I could’ve stayed there all day, absorbing the designs and the peaceful blue color of the walls, and pondering the stories being told in the paintings placed all over the walls. Each depicted an important scene from the Buddha’s life, similar to how some churches have the Stations of the Cross for Jesus.
Chiang Rai temple tours
Visiting Thailand’s White Temple with kids is a big experience that’s worthwhile
I thought a lot about visiting the White Temple with Jodie and the kids. How we talked with Connor about compromise, or how we will sometimes do things that not each of us are excited about, but we still try to have a good attitude.
Above all, I loved the big questions Connor is asking, considering, discussing. It reminds me that he is on the cusp of big changes—and reminds me to be grateful for the times we are having on these travels, no matter how bliss, joy, and challenge combine.
Visiting Thailand’s White Temple with kids is a big experience. The site’s distinct art can be terrifying and shocking, but there’s also inspiration and calm. Kind of like life.
Our visit brought up big questions and conversations. That alone made visiting White Temple with kids, and the Blue Temple, all the more worthwhile.
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