Wat Pho - The Temple of Reclining Buddha

A little note from the blogger: You must be wondering, "WHAT?! Still updating on your graduation trip?! I thought it's long over already.

FYI, this is only slightly less than half of what I had blogged. Still got lots more to go... =)

8 June 2008 @ Bangkok, Thailand

The four of us started our third day in Bangkok with a cup of Milo. LeongKee had to take Ovaltine because the 7-11 shop sold out on Milo.



Our first destination of the day is, Wat Pho, also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It is the largest and oldest temple in Bangkok, built around 200 years before Bangkok became the capital go Thailand.

Kuan, MinBee, LeongKee and Me

50 baht for entrance fee. Once you get in there, you can see many many stupas. (or chedis) Big and small.


If you look closely, they're quite colourful.


Basically, all the architectures in the temple are similar to the picture below. They have this tail-like thingy at the edges of the roof. And using a lot of bling bling. [you'll know what I mean further down the post]


The main attraction in this temple is the largest reclining buddha statue in Thailand. The grand gold-plated statue is 46 metres long and 15 metres in height.


All the visitors were required to take off their shoes and respect the buddha i.e. ladies were not supposed to go in there with a sleeveless shirt and etc.

the feet shows the 108 auspicious characteristics of true Buddha

It is BIG!

While walking around the statue, we noticed the interior of the temple hall is decorated with a lot of arts and carvings. I think the arts are the resemblance of the people in the olden days.


Here's a very nice carving of the golden peacock.


At the back of the statue, you can buy coins and drop them at the long line of pots, then make your wish. I think I saw this in one of the episodes in Amazing Race, no?


After that, we explored the other side of the temple compound. No doubt it has the most number of Buddha images in it. Everywhere we go, we can see statues of Buddha.


Next, we entered another temple hall and saw the shimmering golf Buddha statue.

In this area, we can sit down and take our time to enjoy the beautiful statue of Buddha. But we're not allowed to sit in the centre facing the Buddha directly, it's impolite to do so.


The buildings here are mostly decorated with gold and bright colours.


Suddenly, something caught my eyes, the golden roof reflects the sunlight! And it's happening to other roofs as well.


Every Sunday, there will be students learning the traditional Thai dance and music. We were lucky to be able to see that.


Then, there was an area for people to write down their wish on a piece of roof tile and donate some money for the restoration and maintenance of the temple. Kuan and MinBee wished for "world peace". =)


Besides the Buddha statues, there are also other statues showing the yoga positions around the compound.


This temple is also famous for being Thailand's first university - a school for traditional medicine and massage.


So if you're tired walking around, drop by at Wat Pho for a true traditional Thai massage. We didn't take the massage as we had to move on to our next destination - The Grand Palace. Billy, out.

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