Bangkok Wats and the Grand Palace

By the time we got to Bangkok, we'd seen so many temples that they were all starting to blur together. Rather than getting completely burnt out, and not enjoying some of the best the country had to offer, we restricted ourselves to the "Big Three" in Bangkok.


Nov 27 - Dec 4

By the time we got to Bangkok, we'd seen so many temples that they were all starting to blur together. Rather than getting completely burnt out, and not enjoying some of the best the country had to offer, we restricted ourselves to the "Big Three" in Bangkok.

Wat Pho was the first one we visited, and one of my favorites overall. I guess I like the really BIG Buddhas. This temple also goes by the tongue twister name of Wat Phra Chettuphon Wimon Mangkhlaram Ratchaworamahawihan. I'd been looking forward to this one especially, since I'd seen it in a TV documentary long before we left on the trip. What makes Wat Pho special is the giant reclining Buddha, 46 meters long and 15 meters high. It's a beautiful Buddha, with a wonderful expression and incredibly intricate mother of pearl inlay covering the bottom of its gigantic feet. The inlay consists of 108 different scenes, supposedly displaying auspicious characteristics of a Buddha.

Wat Pho, from Thailand - Bangkok

Wat Pho, from Thailand - Bangkok

Wat Pho is traditionally recognized as the origin of Thai massage, and still has a highly regarded massage school. Occasionally we saw people advertising that they were trained at Wat Pho, but we never tried these out. Wat Pho also contained very nice grounds which wrapped around the main temple and contained a number of stupa, sculptures, and smaller temples. These smaller temples were as large and more ornate than some of the main temples in other towns we'd been to.

Wat Pho side temple, from Thailand - Bangkok

Wat Arun was the next on the list. This temple was founded when the capital of Thailand moved from Ayutthaya to Bangkok. The 82 meter tall central prang is unusually decorated with tens of thousands of pieces of broken porcelain. This porcelain came to Bangkok from China, where it was used as the ballast of the trading ships. Good reuse! You could climb the very steep steps of this prang (so of course we did) and get a good view over the river to the rest of the city.

Wat Arun decorations, from Thailand - Bangkok

Wat Arun, from Thailand - Bangkok

The final temple was the royal one, Wat Phra Kaew, which sits on the same grounds as the Grand Palace. This wat is most famous for housing the Emerald Buddha, a relatively small jadeite Buddha, but possibly the most revered in the country. Its small size means that the Buddha is nearly swallowed up by all the ornamentation surrounding it. (Pictures are not allowed in the temple, so mine is from the outside, and not very good.) Legend has it that the emerald Buddha was created in 43 BC, but its history is somewhat murky until the 1400's. From that point it has been associated with a variety of kings and capitals, including a stay in Chiang Mai. It was moved to Bangkok by King Rama I in 1784, and has been there since.
One curious thing about the Emerald Buddha is that it has 3 sets of gold clothes, one for each season (hot, rainy, and cool), which the king changes in a ceremony. When we were there, the Buddha was wearing his warm coat for the cool season.

Emerald Buddha, from Thailand - Bangkok

The Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace complex contains over a hundred buildings. Many of them were not open, but we did get to see a couple of the formal halls, used for things like coronations and other ceremonies. The wall surrounding part of the complex is covered with hundreds of large, highly detailed murals depicting scenes from the Thai version of the Ramayana known as the Ramakian. This story is THE main story in Thailand, the "National Epic". It occupies a large and central part of their art and drama. It tells the story of Rama (or Phra Ram) and contains kidnappings by demons, all kinds of battles fought with monkeys, demons, flying spirits, and giants, and many palace scenes. I'm not sure what many of the things being depicted were, or what they were supposed to teach, but it was beautiful and fantastic to look at.

Ramakian mural, from Thailand - Bangkok

Another highlight of the Grand Palace area was the Golden Stupa - a huge monument covered in golden tiles, and the menagerie of mythological creatures that surrounded it. These buildings house the ashes of previous royalty.

Golden Stupa at the Grand Palace, from Thailand - Bangkok