BANGKOK, THAILAND
Today I decided to resume seeing some of the sights of Bangkok, and walked to Wat Pho, the city's oldest and largest temple, which is literally across the street from the magnificent Grand Palace. After visiting both, I have to say that Wat Pho is just about as spectacular as the Palace itself. It's a walled collection of temple buildings, courtyards, shrines and statues dating from the 16th Century, housing the country's largest collection of Buddha statues--hundreds, if not thousands, of larger-than-life golden Buddhas are everywhere, lined up side-by-side in glass cases around the complex. The temple also contains a myriad of other statues--people, horses, lions, pigs, you name it--as well as some impressive stupas, massive bell-shaped spires covered in colored ceramic tiles.
Wat Pho's main attraction, though, is the granddaddy of all the Buddhas: A 15-meter high, 46-meter long reclining statue covered in gold leaf, illustrating the Buddha's passage into nirvana. It's a behemoth! Even the soles of his feet are big enough to hold 108 mother-of-pearl scenes depicting the various laksana, or characteristics of a Buddha. In a word: Wow.
There's apparently a lot of restoration work going on at the temple, because there were all sorts of uniformed workers there with scaffolds and such. But I must have arrived during their lunch break, because dozens of them were sprawled out on the ground in various courtyards, fast asleep. I had to step over a couple of them--it really looked like some kind of weird Buddhist die-in protest!
Thai Pronunciation Tips:
Today I decided to resume seeing some of the sights of Bangkok, and walked to Wat Pho, the city's oldest and largest temple, which is literally across the street from the magnificent Grand Palace. After visiting both, I have to say that Wat Pho is just about as spectacular as the Palace itself. It's a walled collection of temple buildings, courtyards, shrines and statues dating from the 16th Century, housing the country's largest collection of Buddha statues--hundreds, if not thousands, of larger-than-life golden Buddhas are everywhere, lined up side-by-side in glass cases around the complex. The temple also contains a myriad of other statues--people, horses, lions, pigs, you name it--as well as some impressive stupas, massive bell-shaped spires covered in colored ceramic tiles.
Wat Pho's main attraction, though, is the granddaddy of all the Buddhas: A 15-meter high, 46-meter long reclining statue covered in gold leaf, illustrating the Buddha's passage into nirvana. It's a behemoth! Even the soles of his feet are big enough to hold 108 mother-of-pearl scenes depicting the various laksana, or characteristics of a Buddha. In a word: Wow.
There's apparently a lot of restoration work going on at the temple, because there were all sorts of uniformed workers there with scaffolds and such. But I must have arrived during their lunch break, because dozens of them were sprawled out on the ground in various courtyards, fast asleep. I had to step over a couple of them--it really looked like some kind of weird Buddhist die-in protest!
Thai Pronunciation Tips:
- In the Thai language, "ph" is pronounced as a hard P, not F. So for example, "Wat Pho" is pronounced "Wat Po"; Koh Phangan is pronounced "Koh Pangan," etc.
- Thai names often have variant English spellings. Which is why you'll see "Ko San Road," "Kao San Road," or even "Khao Sarn Road."
posted by John Kuge at 11:12 PM
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