Wat

A wat (Khmer: វត្ត, vôtt [ʋɔət]; Lao: ວັດ, vat [wāt]; Thai: วัด, RTGS: wat [wát]; Tai Lü: 「ᩅᨯ᩠ᨰ」(waD+Dha); Northern Thai: 「ᩅ᩠ᨯ᩶」 (w+Da2), [wa̋t]) is a type of Buddhist and Hindu temple in Cambodia, Laos, East Shan State, Yunnan, the Southern Province of Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

The word wat is borrowed from the Sanskrit vāṭa (Devanāgarī: वाट), meaning "enclosure".

In Buddhism, a wat is a Buddhist sacred precinct with vihara, a temple, an edifice housing a large image of Buddha and a facility for lessons.

A site without a minimum of three resident bhikkhus cannot correctly be described as a wat although the term is frequently used more loosely, even for ruins of ancient temples.

'Farang temple') is a Christian church, though Thai โบสถ์ (RTGS: bot) may be used descriptively as with mosques.

Most temples were finely decorated with a spiked tower (bosbok) (Khmer: បុស្បុក)(some temples have three or five spiked towers; some have none) on the rooftop along with pediments, naga heads, and chovear (Khmer: ជហ្វា) (a decorative ridge-piece that is placed at each topmost edge of the roof, just above the tip of each pediment).