Description
Buddhapadipa Temple (Wat Buddhapadipa) is a Thai Buddhist temple among the leafy streets of Wimbledon, in south-west London: about four acres of gardens and trees around a Thai ordination hall, with visitors of any faith welcome.
The reason to come is inside the hall, the ubosot: its walls are covered in murals painted over about eight years by some thirty Thai artists, led by Panya Vijinthanasarn and Chalermchai Kositpipat.
The central room tells the life of the Buddha, the side rooms the Jātaka tales, in a bold, contemporary style that is unusual for Buddhist painting and helped shape neo-traditional Thai art. Among the statues stands the Black Buddha, a Sukhothai bronze about 650 to 700 years old.
The temple was opened in 1966 by King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit, and the King gave it its name, "Light of the Buddha". It began in a house in East Sheen and moved to Wimbledon in 1976.
The reason to come is inside the hall, the ubosot: its walls are covered in murals painted over about eight years by some thirty Thai artists, led by Panya Vijinthanasarn and Chalermchai Kositpipat.
The central room tells the life of the Buddha, the side rooms the Jātaka tales, in a bold, contemporary style that is unusual for Buddhist painting and helped shape neo-traditional Thai art. Among the statues stands the Black Buddha, a Sukhothai bronze about 650 to 700 years old.
The temple was opened in 1966 by King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit, and the King gave it its name, "Light of the Buddha". It began in a house in East Sheen and moved to Wimbledon in 1976.