What started out as an ambitious project 50 years ago, the temple on the sea quickly ran out of funding.

Dax Ward, a US photographer living in Asia for the past 13 years, captures beauty in the abandoned. Here, Ward provides a photo essay of an unfinished Buddhist temple and pier in Thailand.

Wat Jittapawan is an abandoned temple/pier at a Buddhist College for monks which is located in Pattaya, Chonburi province just south of Bangkok.

It was a very ambitious project which began almost 50 years ago but ran out of funding before it could be finished.

DAX WARD At Jittapawan College, Chonburi, Thailand.

The construction was carried out entirely by monks who reside and work at the college, without any outsourced labour.

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DAX WARD What started out as an ambitious project 50 years ago, the temple on the sea quickly ran out of funding.

Construction began in 1972 of a 500 metre-long jetty that should have ended in an enormous temple on the sea.

Funding ran dry a long time ago and all that is left are decaying, half-built structures.

The jetty is mostly complete, but the main temple and smaller pagodas are only a shells of what was was planned to be.

DAX WARD Novice Monks at Jittapawan College, Chonburi, Thailand.

It seems that the funding needed to complete the enormously expensive project was grossly underestimated, as they have spent 300 million baht (NZ$11.97 million) and it is estimated that they would need at least that much more for completion.

Jittapwan Pier is an extreme slow-motion construction project that only continues every few years when a university or other institution donates money to continue.

Further issues complicate the near half-century build, including local laws prohibiting construction on the water (permission for which they never actually received) and the death of the head abbot who initiated the project.

DAX WARD The jetty itself is mostly complete.

The college-complex is home to a number of young novice monks from humble homes (many are orphans) in the countryside who are given free education.

There are also a lot of stray "soi dogs" that the monks feed and care for as pets.

Wat Jittapawan, with its peculiar history and scenic coastal views, is an extraordinary place that is truly unique to Thailand. It is a peaceful, quiet location that is certainly not on any tourist maps, and the sunsets are absolutely luminous.

DAX WARD Wat Jittapawan is a peaceful, quiet location that is certainly not on any tourist maps.

To see more of Ward's images of abandoned Thailand, have a look at his Facebook page and website.