Chiang Rai in northern Thailand is known as an art center and is home to numerous impressive cultural attractions as well as dazzling personalities of the Thai art scene. The White Temple is one of these attractions – a place that truly deserves the description "unique".

Although Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple as it is known to foreigners, looks like a traditional Thai temple, it is anything but. The work of Thai artist and millionaire Ajarn Chalermchai Kositpipat is both a tribute to traditional Thai art and to pop culture.

As you approach the White Temple, passing a reflecting pool surrounded by elaborate sculptures and incredibly decorative walls and towers, a forest of disembodied arms stretches out towards you as you cross a bridge to the entrance.

Demon heads hang from trees around the temple grounds – traditional Thai demons alongside the incredible Hulk, the Terminator and even Gollum.

Ancient Buddhist legends, the battle between Buddha and Mara (demon), are told in the traditional style as murals inside the temple, but the characters depicted are 20th-century heroes and villains, such as Spiderman, Ultraman and Neo, who oppose Darth Vader and the Terminator.

Herein lies a message to the world: We have lost our moral compass, the one that should guide us. To quote Chalermchai: “Look at one another with kindness, not with hatred, which can lead to war.” In the eyes of a giant demon are portraits of George Bush and Osama Bin Laden, gazing at each other as the Twin Towers burn below. The artist's message, conveyed through these figures, is this: In reality, we do need heroes in real life—but no movie hero could have saved the Twin Towers.

As you pass through the temple, a path of enlightenment leads you to a statue of Lord Buddha, whose artwork transforms from demons to angels as you pass through it, out to the other end into a heavenly garden, along a corridor decorated with silver leaves, and on to another golden temple surrounded by a pond.

The White Temple, with its surrounding garden and buildings, is an ongoing project on which Chalermchai and around 300 apprentices are working.

In a studio the size of a clothes hanger, we were able to observe the artists at work on their latest project, a huge mural and statue commemorating the heroes of the nearby rescue of the schoolboy football team “Wild Boars” from their plight in the flooded Tham Luang cave.

The centerpiece of this commemorative artwork, which is eventually to be placed near the entrance to the Tham Luang cave, is a larger-than-life statue of former Thai Marine SEAL Saman Kunan.

Back towards the entrance of this huge complex is an art gallery housing a large collection of the artist's more traditional works, painted in the traditional Thai style, illustrations depicting Buddhist legends, as well as memorabilia from Chalermchai's private collection, old records, comics and various other toys and kitsch curiosities.

This complex is unique. Behind every corner you'll find another architectural masterpiece or curious feature, such as this toilet block, which is fit for a king and resembles a palace more than a bathroom.