Buriram City Pillar Shrine—Buriram City, Thailand. - Buddhist Temples and Public Shrines on Waymarking.com

Each capital city of each Thai province has a 'City Pillar Shrine'. These shrines represent the centre and the spirit of the city and the province. In Thai the term is 'Lak Mueang'.

The province of Buriram (~400kms east of Bangkok) is one of the older provinces of Thailand, existing in one form or another since the glory days of the Khmer Empire over a thousand years ago, however, as part of modern Thailand, Buriram is less well regarded. To be blunt, it is considered to be 'hicksville' by most Thais. The local economy is largely based upon agriculture, and a trickle of tourism from visitors to the nearby, large Khmer temple of Phanom Rung and a few other sights in the province.

The Shrine is located near the centre of the town, on Lak Mueang Rd, and is thus easy to find. In design the shrine is built in the prang Khmer style, and resembles the architecture of Prasat Phanom Rung temple (a motif in the town and province). The shrine is constructed in an attractive soft-brown stone. It is ~15m high. An impressive structure. It is located in a purpose built enclosure, which also includes a Chinese Buddhist temple.

The interior of the shrine is somewhat barren, however, the recent renovations are clearly uncompleted. Most likely over the next few years (2010 onwards) additional imagery and icons will be placed in the shrine. An attractive feature of the shrine is that a beam of sunlight shines directly onto the pillar, through a skylight in the roof. Interestingly, the pillar itself seems to be broken into two parts, which are bound together. The total height of the pillar is less than a metre. This is the first time I have seen such a thing. There could be an interesting story here.

Open to visitors?: Yes Photography Permitted Inside?: Yes Statue of the Buddha present?: Yes Related Website: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Include in your log one or two complete sentences. Logs containing a few words like "visited it" are subject to deletion.

Photos of the shrine are strongly encouraged when permitted otherwise please refrain from taking pictures inside and in any case, generally have respect for the religious nature of the site.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.