Beautiful Sunday and Sublime Sunday - Elephant Temple - Erawan Museum !!

Another Beautiful Sunday in Bangkok and a surprise awaited me this morning i got a message from a young lady friend that i knew from back home in Australia but she had gone back home to live in her home country , Austria after she had finished her studies in Sydney university. It was a lovely surprise so we meant up and she asked me about this 3 Headed Elephant Temple weather i could take her out there to see it , i thought why not i have actually always wanted to see this temple myself but never got the opportunity so this was perfect.

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This Temple is well known and famous in Thailand for it's uniqueness been a giant three-headed elephant and the art display inside the elephant's body called the Erawan Museum (Thai: พิพิธภัณฑ์ช้างเอราวัณ) This Temple and museum is located in Samut Prakan Province, Thailand. This elephant temple is three storeys and inside the elephant it contain antiquities and priceless collections of ancient religious objects belonging to Khun Lek Viriyapant who is the museum owner.

This massive three headed elephant made of bronze weighs 250 tons, is 29 metres high, 39 metres long and stands on a 15 meter high pedestal. Definitely amazing and a spectacular statue to see. From conception to completion it took almost ten years to construct.

Erawan Museum in Thailand is an important model of sculpture it's the door opening to the heritage of Thai culture. The Erawan Museum creates a kind of atmosphere that induces visitors to perceive and appreciate the continuity of history, cultures, religions, arts and customs of faith from past. We were not allowed to photograph anything in the lower floor museum for obvious reasons.

The domed upper level of the pedestal, representing Mount Meru (the center of the Buddhist universe), is brashly beautiful. A towering, techno-coloured hall rich with iconography and artistic exuberance, what really impresses here is craftsmanship.

The second floor representing the earth (or human world) houses more precious antiques and arts including ceramics and European pottery. The hall features a statue of Guanyin, the Chinese Goddess with a thousand arms.

The melange of artistic skills used to ornament everything from walls to winding staircases is incredibly diverse, and includes hand-beaten copper work, Benjarong inlays, intricate stucco by Petchaburi craftsmen, tin embossed tableaus, and mural paintings.

At the top, in the belly of this beast, is Tavatimsa Heaven just a truly masterpiece of a Temple that you wouldn't even image. This in Buddhist cosmology lies above Mount Meru and said to be where sacred beings, including elephant deity Airavata, congregate.

And after a spiritual showiness, you can wallow too in the tranquility of Erawan's lush tropical gardens. Thick swathes of rare flora, and tucked away benches, pavilions and rocks make it easy to find spiritual soothing, or seek quiet repose.

You can wander along the stone paths, cross diminutive streams or admire the vivid coloring's of plants and palm trees with exotic titles like West Indian Jasmine, Ixora Bush and African Oil Palm and this girl just happen to be sitting on that rock waiting for her photo to be taken so i snapped one to...hehe :)

There are also schools of carp in the rock ponds that you can feed if you like or seek out mythological statues strewn throughout. Another popular, and rather beautiful, merit-making pursuit is to set adrift lotus leafs on the decorative moat, and with them dispense of bad luck.

Wondering throughout however as conspicuous as the elephant is a surreal feeling. As you explore Erawan Museum you seem at every turn to be wandering through the dreams of its creator. Leaving this Temple i must say i felt more cleansed and spiritual it was certainly a wonderful way to have spend a Sunday with a friend i hadn't seen for awhile and she left all amazed and impressed.

Thank you @ace108 for hosting #beautifulsunday and thank you @c0ff33a for hosting #SublimeSunday.