Ancient and Sacred by Naveen Marasinghe

Ancient and Sacred by Naveen Marasinghe

Wat Pho or Wat Phra Cetuphon, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, is situated near the Grand Palace and is officially know as the Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm Rajwaramahaviharn.

Built 200 years before Bangkok became the capital city of Thailand, the temple is the oldest in Bangkok. Covering an area of 80,000 square meters the temple is the largest in Bangkok.

The temple is home to the largest collection of Buddha images in the entire country and also the largest Buddha statute in Thailand, its famous Reclining Buddha statue.

The temple is considered to be the birthplace of Thai massage. Even before the temple was established the place was a centre for education and Thai medicine, statues had been created portraying the various yoga positions.

Together with renovation work being done on the Wat Phodharam in 1788, which was located on the same site, the Wat Pho was created. During the reign of King Rama III, the temple was placed with medicinal texts and was renovated again in 1982.

The school for ancient medicine and massage was founded at the site in 1962. The temple contains more than one thousand Buddha images mostly from the ancient capitals of Ayuthaya and Sukhothai. The Reclining Buddha runs 46 meters long and 15 meters high. The statue is gold plated, while the feet and eyes are decorated with the mother-of-pearl. The feet depict the 108 auspicious traits of the true Buddha and the statue is to represent the Buddha passing into nirvana.

The temple is cut in half by the Soi Chetuphon road into two walled compounds, which runs from east to west. The two are called the northern and southern compounds.

The temple is located in the Maharat Road, 1 km south of the grand palace, and near and across the river from the Wat Arun. For stay Bangkok serviced apartments are available and Bangkok Royal President is one such place which is widely popular among tourists.

About the Author

Naveen Marasinghe is an Online Marketing Executive at eMarketingEye which is a search engine marketing company that offers PPC Management and SEO services and specializes in serving the online travel and hospitality industry.