Highlights of Bangkok - Top 20 travel attractions
Slide show depicting Top 20 Bangkok's must-sees
TemplesWat Phra Keo
Wat Po Wat Arun Marble Temple Wat Traimit Golden Mount Wat Suthat |
Palaces & MuseumsJim Thompson House
National Museum Suan Pakkad Palace Dusit Palace |
Markets & MallsSiam Square
Chatuchak Chinatown Flower Market |
Urban areas & ParksBaiyoke
Lumbini Park Kaosan Benjakiti Park Soi Cowboy |
Wat Phra Keo, though a large complex, is somewhat the royal chapel of the Grand Palace, situated in the northeastern corner of the official royal residence. Actually, the temple is not a normal Wat, not a Thai monastery, as there are no monks inhabiting it. Wat Phra Keo is Thailand's most sacred Buddhist temple housing the national palladium, the Emerald Buddha. The statue is neither made of emerald nor of jade, but of green jasper, a stone held in high esteem in many Asian and European cultures since antiquity. The Emerald Buddha was originally created and housed in the Lan Na kingdom of northern Thailand. During a vacancy of the throne it came into the possession of the the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. When the Siamese General Chao Phraya Chakri was sent to Vientiane to defeat an insurrection, he took the Emerald Buddha to the new capital Thonburi. Later on, the general became the first king of the still reigning Chakri dynasty and transferred the Emerald Buddha to his newly founded capital Bangkok. Laos has considered the Emerald Buddha to be a stolen national treasure till the present day. The Emerald Buddha is on display in the large Ubosoth, which occupies the centre of the southern half of the Wat Phra Keo complex.
The northern half of the temple compound is dominated by a row of three buildings on a shared platform. From east to west, the first edifice is the Prasat Pratheppidon from the early 20th century, now a kind of pantheon containing statues of the kings of the reigning Chakri dynasty. In front of it are gilded Kinnara and Kinnari statues, one of which is known as the Golden Angel. The next building in line is a wonderfully green decorated building is a monastic library, as it enshrines the Sacred scruptures. It's name Phra Mondhop refers to its shape, a Mondhop is a typical type of Thai sacred architecture, viz. a kind of image hall on a square groundplan with a pyramidic roof. The western building is the gilded Chedi Phrasirattana, which houses Buddha relics, which are a gift from Sri Lanka. At the northern side of the terrace carrying a model of Angkor Wat, which for a period in the 19th century was on territory under control of the Thai kingdom. Other remarkable features of Wat Phra Keo include the long gallery of excellent mural depicting 178 scenes from the Ramayana epic and the 12 individually designed and coloured giant Yaksha doorkeepers. |
Wat Po is situated kust to the south of the Grand Palace, the northeastern corner of which is Wat Phra Keo. THe official name of Wat Po is Wat Jetubon. It was the main temple of King Rama I, the founder of the Chakri dynasty and the new capital Bangkok, who ordered the reconstruction of a magnificent temple at the site of a demolished older one. Wat Po in its current state is the result of several enlargements and embellishments under subsequent rulers of the Chakri dynasty in the 19th century. It developed into one of the most colourful temples of Bangkok, second only to Wat Phra Keo.
The ceremonial area of Wat Po has two sections that are quite diverse in appearance. It's the western part that's most colourful, whereas the eastern part is dominated by the white buildings similar in style to those of other porticoed temples in the Ratanakosin style of the Bangkok period. The central building is an Ubosoth, a hall for the higher ordinations. The seated Buddha in the interior id known as Phra Phuttha Thewapatimakon The ordination hall is placed in a cloister-like courtyard, in each cardinal directions are Viharn halls keeping further Buddha images. This central area of monastic ceremonies is remarkable for two reasons. It was one of the first educational institutions for ordinary people in Thailand and his been a kind of university for traditional Thai medicine. Many marble illustration for teaching purposes are still in situ, mainly in the cloister. There are also depictions of the human body for anatomical studies. Wat Po is also considered to be the cradle of Thai massage. The western part of Wat Po is dominated by four colourful memorial chedis dedicated to the first kings of the Chakri dynasty. Among the many details worth noticing in this area are large guardian statues in a Chinese style, each of them with individual characteristics. The main attraction, however, is the 46 m long reclining Buddha in the large Viharn hall called Phra Buddhasaiyas in the northeastern section. It's arguably the most famous recumbent Buddha of Thailand. The image represents the moment of death of the Buddha as his entry into the final and supreme Nirvana. The huge statue is a brick construction, the plaster of which was gilded. The soles of the feet of the Buddha have highly asmired pearl inlays, depicting the 108 auspicious symbols of a Buddha. |
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