Wat Pho
Interesting facts
- The temple's full formal name is Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan; Wat Pho is a shortening of its older name, Wat Photaram.
- The old name Photaram refers to the Bodhi tree monastery at Bodh Gaya in India, where the Buddha attained enlightenment.
- Wat Pho ranks first among the six temples in Thailand classed as the highest grade of first-class royal temples.
- King Rama IV placed some of the ashes of Rama I beneath the pedestal of the main Buddha image in the ordination hall.
- The green chedi was built by Rama I to hold the remains of Phra Phuttha Sanphet, a huge bronze standing Buddha from Ayutthaya.
- Along the hall of the Reclining Buddha stand 108 bronze bowls; dropping coins into them is believed to bring good fortune and supports the monks.
- In 1831, 152 marble panels, each 45 centimetres square, were carved with scenes from the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Ramayana.
- The double cloister around the ordination hall holds around 400 Buddha images, many brought from northern Thailand.
- Twenty-four small rock gardens in the grounds model the rock formations of Thailand in miniature.
- The temple's massage school has trained more than 200,000 therapists who now practise in about 145 countries.
Why it is worth it
Wat Pho is less a single temple than a walled town of devotion on Rattanakosin Island, laid out just south of the Grand Palace. A monastery stood here in the Ayutthaya era, but the complex owes its present form to the first Chakri kings: Rama I ordered its reconstruction in 1788, the work was finished in 1801, and in 1832 Rama III began an enlargement that took more than sixteen years. The result covers roughly eight hectares and holds well over a thousand Buddha images.
Its celebrity is the Reclining Buddha, built under Rama III: a gilded figure 46 metres long and 15 metres high, so large that the hall seems barely able to contain it. The feet are the place to linger. Each sole is three metres high and four and a half long, inlaid in mother-of-pearl and divided into 108 panels of auspicious emblems — flowers, animals, ritual objects — so that the most humble part of the body becomes a cosmic catalogue.
Outside, the grounds reward slow walking. Four great chedis, each 42 metres tall and dressed in green, white, yellow and blue, honour the first four kings of the dynasty; around them stand dozens of smaller stupas, cloisters lined with seated Buddhas, and stone guardians in Chinese dress — some of them clearly portraying Europeans — that arrived as ballast in junks trading with China. Rama III also turned the temple into a kind of public university: marble slabs set into the walls carry inscriptions and diagrams on history, literature, medicine and massage, now listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World. That teaching role continues in the traditional massage school founded on the grounds in 1955, which has trained practitioners from around the world.
Getting there
Wat Pho stands in the old royal quarter of Bangkok, about 1.2 km from the city centre point. The nearest airport is Don Mueang International (DMK), about 22 km away. The MRT Blue Line stop Sanam Chai is a few minutes' walk from the temple, and Chao Phraya Express boats call at Tha Tien pier just across Maha Rat Road — the same pier serves the cross-river ferry to Wat Arun.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Grand Palace 0.4 km · palace
- Wat Arun 0.6 km · stupa
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Wat Pho, also spelled Wat Po, is a Buddhist temple complex in the Phra Nakhon District, Bangkok, Thailand. It is on Rattanakosin Island, directly south of the Grand Palace. Known also as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, its official name is Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan. The more commonly known name, Wat Pho, is a contraction of its older name, Wat Photaram.
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