Thailand: Sign indicating how many steps there are to the summit, Wat Tham Seua, Krabi Town, Krabi Province, Southern Thailand

Wat Tham Seua, the 'Temple of the Tiger Cave' is built into a cave set in a limestone cliff.

Surrounded by individual monk's residences, this is one of southern Thailand's best-known forest temples.

The main viharn or assembly hall extends into a long, shallow limestone cave displaying various grim reminders of mortality as a counterbalance to worldly desires. At the back of the cave a flight of marble stairs lead up to the 'tiger cave' itself. Within there is a venerated Buddha footprint on a gilded platform and a life-size figure of Ajaan Jamnien, the temple's enigmatic abbot.

The sprawling temple grounds are partly landscaped, and there are two separate stairways leading to a large Guan Yin image (the Mahayana Buddhist version of the Indian sage Avalokitesvara, known generally as 'the Chinese Goddess of Mercy'), and to another Buddha footprint.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

David Henley

Credit:

Pictures From Asia