Description
Wat Nuea (วัดเหนือ) is a downtown Sakon Nakhon temple established in 1847. Despite being an old Buddhist temple, it has an unusual, modern looking entrance that looks like it was influenced by the Art Deco period. The temple has a beautiful Ubosot at the center of the grounds, which is partially white, with wooden shudders carved with bas relief Buddhist imagery.
Positioned at entrance of the Ubosot are unique looking Singha Lions (Chinthes), which are covered with different colored pieces of broken stone. We haven't seen similar looking lions at any Sakon Nakhon temple that we've visited to date. Also unusual are what looks to be Garudas with elephant heads surrounding the upper part of the Ubosot. The Garuda is a common guardian figure at temples in Thailand, but we have never seen one with an elephant head, and can find no reference to a human/bird/elephant figure in our research. So, the exact identification of this figure will (for now) remain a mystery.
There are many birds around this Sakon Nakhon city temple, so you'll notice netting placed in the gables of the Ubosot to help prevent birds from nesting there. This downtown temple is walking distance (600 meters) from Wat Sisaket, if you would like to take a walking tour of temples in the city.
