Thai temple art and architecture

Thai temple art and architecture is the art and architecture of Buddhist temples in Thailand. Temples are known as wats, from the Pāḷi vāṭa, meaning "enclosure". A temple has an enclosing wall that divides it from the secular world. Temples served as a stabilizing center in these communities because their sacred teachings became a basis of authority and boundaries, their precincts became places of instruction, their regimes of common ownership of property formed them into economic centers, and their functions allowed them to serve at the heart of these communities in a variety of ways.