Mae Hong Son lies in a deep valley near the Myanmar border, and the temple on the hill above it belongs as much to the Shan world as to the Thai one. Its two whitewashed chedis, tiered and finialled in a style familiar across the border, stand on a terrace at the top of the ridge, brilliantly white by day and lit at night so that they hover above the town. The film covers the ascent, the shrines, the Buddha images and the guardian figures, and the devotional life of a temple that serves a distinctive local community. It gives particular weight to the light: the sea of mist that fills the valley at dawn, the late sun on the plaster, the town appearing and disappearing below. Aerial photography establishes the setting between mountain ridges. A visually memorable sacred-sites title for travel strands and Asian-heritage collections.
