For a first-time visitor to Thailand, as I was, Bangkok's many important temple complexes, or wats, can be a bit bewildering. Each has its own character and importance, but none, it seems, is important for only one reason.
Wat Pho, or officially Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan, seems like a good example of that. It's perhaps best known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, but it is also known as the birthplace of Thai massage, which is still taught there. It also houses a school of Thai traditional medicine, and was Thailand's earliest place of public education.
If all that weren't enough, the ashes of King Rama I, founder of the current dynasty, are enshrined there as well, along with the world's largest collection of Buddha images, collected by Rama I from abandoned or destroyed temples throughout the country.
Like many of the world's major religious places, it is not the first to occupy the spot. Its common name, Wat Pho, is shorthand for Wat Photaram, the name of the dilapidated earlier temple that occupied the site before Rama I built his palace next door and ordered a new temple complex built there.
During the reign of Rama III from 1824 to 1851, the complex was expanded and most of the existing structures were either built or rebuilt during that time, including the building that holds the 46-metre-long reclining Buddha. He also had fifty members of his court and learned monks decorate the walls with diagrams and inscriptions about various subjects; in effect, Thailand's first university, and now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Program.
A model of the temple complex. Complex is not an exaggeration!
But leaving the history, as fascinating as I found it, and moving on to my visit, which was a bit confusing in itself, since the complex has over a hundred buildings, large and small, along with gardens and courtyards, all decorated beautifully, with amazing tile on much of it.
Curiously, most of the large stone statues guarding the gates in the compound, were originally imported from China as ballast on trade ships; some of them represent figures that are definitely images of Europeans!
The obvious main focus, at least for Western visitors, is the famous Reclining Buddha, so long that it must be seen in sections;
Between pairs of columns, there are small spaces to step in for a closer look, as in the image above. At each one, I had to patiently wait while visitors, and sometimes whole families of visitors, filled the alcove for selfies or family portraits. Several of them, seeing I was on my own, offered to take pictures of me with the Buddha, and seemed surprised that I wasn't interested.
Some of the alcoves are occupied by small shrines.
In another of the buildings, a display of documents, and dozens of religious figures.
And, inevitably, an opportunity to take home a memory of the visit. I did, but not such a tangible one as these!
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