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wat

 
Dictionary: wat   (wät) pronunciation
 
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n.

A Buddhist temple in Thailand or Cambodia.

[Thai, from Sanskrit vāṭaḥ, enclosure.]


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Buddhism Dictionary: wat
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Thai, Khmer, and Lao term for a vihāra.

 
Wikipedia: Wat
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 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)
For other uses, see WAT (disambiguation).
The entrance to the Phra Viharn Luang (meeting hall) at Wat Suthat, one of the most important Buddhist temples in Bangkok

A wat (derived from the Sanskrit word Vattaka) is a monastery temple in Cambodia, Thailand, Lanna or Laos. The word "wat" (Khmer: វត្ត, Thai: วัด, sometimes rendered "vat" when referring to Laos) means "school." Strictly speaking a wat is a Buddhist sacred precinct with monks' quarters, the temple proper, an edifice housing a large image of Buddha, and a structure for lessons. A Buddhist site without a minimum of three resident monks cannot correctly be described as a wat, although the term is frequently used more loosely, even for ruins of ancient temples. (As a transitive or intransitive verb, wat means to measure, to take measurements; compare templum, from which temple derives, having the same root as template.)

In Cambodia, a wat is used to refer to all kinds of places of worship. Technically, wat generally refers to a Buddhist place of worship, but the technical term is វត្តពុទ្ធសាសនា (wat pootasasna). A Christian church can be referred to either as វត្តយេស៊ូ (wat yeasu) or វិហារយេស៊ូ(vihear yeasu). Angkor Wat អង្ករវត្ត means city of temples.

In everyday language in Thailand, a wat is any place of worship except a mosque (Thai สุเหร่า - su-rao; or มัสยิด - Thai rendering of masjid; a mosque may also be described as โบสถ์ของอิสลาม - bot khong Is-a-lam). Thus wat cheen is a Chinese temple (either Buddhist or Taoist), wat khaek is a Hindu temple, and wat kris or wat krit or wat farang is a Christian church, though Thai โบสถ์ (โบด bot) may be used descriptively as with mosque.

Contents

Structure

A typical Buddhist wat consists of the following buildings:

  • chaidei or chedi (Khmer ចេតិយ), (Lanna: phrathāt), (Thai เจดีย์) (from Sanskrit: chaitya, temple) - usually conical in, as parian is a Pali word meaning 'educated monk' or 'monk student'.

The living quarters of the monks, including the กุฏิ (Lanna), (Thai กุติ kuti or กุด kut - monk cells) are separated from the sacred buildings.

Examples

Sister project Look up wat in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Some well-known wats include:

Cambodia

Laos

Thailand

Lanna (Northern Thailand)

Gallery

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh

Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh

Two viharns and a chedi at Wat Phra That Chang Kham, Nan

Chedi and viharn at Wat Suan Tan, Nan

Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang, Laos
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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Buddhism Dictionary. A Dictionary of Buddhism. Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wat".  Read more

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