Wat Ban Rai, Nakhon Ratchasima

Wat Ban Rai lies in Dan Khun Thot district, west of Nakhon Ratchasima, and was the monastery of Luang Pho Khun, one of the most widely revered monks in modern Thailand. It became a major pilgrimage site during his lifetime and remains one.

Its centrepiece is a building unlike any other in the country: a hall on an island in an artificial lake, built in the form of an enormous coiled naga, its head rearing over the entrance. The entire exterior is faced in small ceramic mosaic tiles - millions of them, laid by hand over years - depicting scenes from the Buddha's life and the Jataka tales across the serpent's body.

A causeway crosses to the island, and the interior holds relics and a museum of the monk's life. It receives very large numbers of Thai visitors and almost no foreign ones.