Wat Pho - Wat Phra Chetuphon

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Wat Pho - Wat Phra Chetuphon

 

The Wat Phra Chetuphon’s or Wat Pho’s claim to fame is mainly due to its sacred resident, the humungous statue of the Reclining Buddha. An unbelievable twenty acres in size, the Wat Pho is Bangkok’s largest Wat. It is also the city’s oldest since it was built approximately two hundred years before the capital of Thailand was Bangkok.

Unfortunately, today’s Wat looks nothing like the original one. This is because it was rebuilt entirely by Rama I after the country’s capital was transferred to Bangkok. The Wat Pho is famous not only for housing the largest reclining image of Buddha in the country but also for having the largest collection of Buddha images anywhere.

Over forty meters long and fifteen meters high, the Wat Pho’s reclining image of Buddha is gold plated and meant to showcase the passing into Nirvana by the Buddha. Mother-of-Pearl adorns the eyes and feet. One hundred and eight auspicious true Buddha characteristics are shown on its feet.

The Wat Pho’s extensive grounds houses over a thousand images of Buddha in all, a large majority

of this collection came from the ruins of Thailand’s former capitals of Ayutthaya and Sukhothai.

The Chetuphon road divides the grounds in two. The side on the north is usually the one most visited

by people, and it has a temple hall or bot bordered by almost four hundred bronze images of Buddha. Outside the hall are over a hundred fifty slabs of marble illustrating the 2nd half of the Ramakian epic tale.