Prang

Wat Chai Watthanaram, Ayutthaya

Redenting the walls of this tower (prang) served a practical as well as an aesthetic function, since it provided a structural buttress that strengthened the the wall against collapse. Readers can verify this by the simple experiment of pleating a piece of paper, rolling it up into a tube, and then standing it upright. It will be much more difficult to collapse a pleated tube than a smooth one.