Firstly, you must be dressed appropriately. This means no shorts or short sleeved shirts. In some places you could even hire 'cover up' clothing which was quite handy for those a little skimpily dressed.
Secondly you must always take your shoes off before entering a Wat. This reminded us a lot of Maori culture where you have to take your shoes off before entering a Marae.
Thirdly when sitting in front of statues of Buddha you should not have your feet pointed towards him as this is a sign of disrespect. Feet are considered the lowest and dirtiest point of the body which makes sense as they are! You are also not meant to take photos of people with Buddha as a backdrop.
We were happy to follow all of the above to show the upmost respect to Buddha at all times. Most other Farangs seemed happy to follow these customs as well which was good, although a few blindly wandered round in singlets and shorts.
The two shots below were taken at Wat Traimit.
This is the home of the Golden Buddha. He is 3m tall and is a 5.5 solid gold image. He was quite incredible and gleamed amazingly!
Wat Pho is the largest and oldest Wat in Bangkok. It hosts the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand. It is also home to the Reclining Buddha (see below). He is 46m long and 15m high. For this reason it was very difficult to get a picture that shows all of him! He has the most amazing feet which are elaborately decorated in Mother-of-pearl.
We also visited Wat Phra Kaew which is on the same grounds as the Grand Palace (where the Royal Family of Thailand reside). This Wat is home to the Emerald Buddha, who was a favorite for Princess. He has 3 different gold costumes which are changed by the King according to the season, and is not actually made of Emerald, but jade or jasper quartz. The clothes must clip on.
He first appeared on record in 15th century Chiang Mai, so he is pretty old! There have been a few raids and thefts of the Jade Buddha between the Thai, Laos, Burmese etc. so he has quite a history and resided all over the place.. Photos were not allowed, so this is a stock photo we found on the internet.
The Wat was so elaborately decorated. The work that must go into maintaining these Wats must be HUGE. There seemed to be workers everywhere, fixing up bits and pieces, sweeping the grounds etc. It is obviously very important to them to keep these buildings looking magnificent.
Pictured below is a detailed shot of the above Wat. Aren't the colours and stying beautiful!
The buildings are like something out of a fantasy world. This was a golden Chedi (bell-shaped statue) that stood outside Wat Phra Kaew.
These are often walked around (clockwise) to ward off evil, and to praise Buddha. Symmetry is big in the design of these kind of things.
It's good to be the King! Pictured above is The Grand Palace. The King and his family live here for the majority of the year. Security was fairly strict around the building with lots of armed (AK47 type armed!) guards around. The Palace was also surrounded by the most amazing sculptured trees.
We decided to save Wat Arun (also known as The Temple of Dawn) until last. This was the Wat that we both found the most spectacular. The central Prang (or tower) is covered in a mosaic of broken, multi-hued Chinese porcelain. Apparently this is quite a common type of temple ornamentation.
In the photo below you can see a ladder which a bold Monk has climb, possibly to ring the bells that were up there, and to dress the Buddha statues. A very scary climb, anyway. Check out the strong statues who look like they are holding the temple up!
The most exciting thing about this Prang is that you could climb it. It was a rather scary climb with the most steep stairs you could possibly imagine. Princess made the mistake of wearing a skirt which blew up constantly so the whole of Bangkok has probably seen her knickers!
Wat Saket was the other Wat we decided we must visit, even though we were feeling slightly wat-ed out by this stage. It is an artificial hill, known as Golden Mount, that has a beautiful Chedi (bell) on the top. The photo below shows the Wat in miniture.
The site was going to have a different Chedi on top, but the artificial hill gave way part way thru construction During King Rama III. The hill was left till till King Rama IV decided to fix up the ruins and build this Wat with Chedi.
Here's the real thing. a spectacular golden sight. Its actually lots of little gold tiles, like a huge golden disco-ball... sort of.
The views of Bangkok were stunning from up here. You could truly see what an amazingly huge city Bangkok really is. But yes, there was a lot of stair climbing involved to reach the top!
This is the home of the Golden Buddha. He is 3m tall and is a 5.5 solid gold image. He was quite incredible and gleamed amazingly!
Wat Pho is the largest and oldest Wat in Bangkok. It hosts the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand. It is also home to the Reclining Buddha (see below). He is 46m long and 15m high. For this reason it was very difficult to get a picture that shows all of him! He has the most amazing feet which are elaborately decorated in Mother-of-pearl.
We also visited Wat Phra Kaew which is on the same grounds as the Grand Palace (where the Royal Family of Thailand reside). This Wat is home to the Emerald Buddha, who was a favorite for Princess. He has 3 different gold costumes which are changed by the King according to the season, and is not actually made of Emerald, but jade or jasper quartz. The clothes must clip on.
He first appeared on record in 15th century Chiang Mai, so he is pretty old! There have been a few raids and thefts of the Jade Buddha between the Thai, Laos, Burmese etc. so he has quite a history and resided all over the place.. Photos were not allowed, so this is a stock photo we found on the internet.
The Wat was so elaborately decorated. The work that must go into maintaining these Wats must be HUGE. There seemed to be workers everywhere, fixing up bits and pieces, sweeping the grounds etc. It is obviously very important to them to keep these buildings looking magnificent.
Pictured below is a detailed shot of the above Wat. Aren't the colours and stying beautiful!
The buildings are like something out of a fantasy world. This was a golden Chedi (bell-shaped statue) that stood outside Wat Phra Kaew.
These are often walked around (clockwise) to ward off evil, and to praise Buddha. Symmetry is big in the design of these kind of things.
It's good to be the King! Pictured above is The Grand Palace. The King and his family live here for the majority of the year. Security was fairly strict around the building with lots of armed (AK47 type armed!) guards around. The Palace was also surrounded by the most amazing sculptured trees.
We decided to save Wat Arun (also known as The Temple of Dawn) until last. This was the Wat that we both found the most spectacular. The central Prang (or tower) is covered in a mosaic of broken, multi-hued Chinese porcelain. Apparently this is quite a common type of temple ornamentation.
In the photo below you can see a ladder which a bold Monk has climb, possibly to ring the bells that were up there, and to dress the Buddha statues. A very scary climb, anyway. Check out the strong statues who look like they are holding the temple up!
The most exciting thing about this Prang is that you could climb it. It was a rather scary climb with the most steep stairs you could possibly imagine. Princess made the mistake of wearing a skirt which blew up constantly so the whole of Bangkok has probably seen her knickers!
Wat Saket was the other Wat we decided we must visit, even though we were feeling slightly wat-ed out by this stage. It is an artificial hill, known as Golden Mount, that has a beautiful Chedi (bell) on the top. The photo below shows the Wat in miniture.
The site was going to have a different Chedi on top, but the artificial hill gave way part way thru construction During King Rama III. The hill was left till till King Rama IV decided to fix up the ruins and build this Wat with Chedi.
Here's the real thing. a spectacular golden sight. Its actually lots of little gold tiles, like a huge golden disco-ball... sort of.
The views of Bangkok were stunning from up here. You could truly see what an amazingly huge city Bangkok really is. But yes, there was a lot of stair climbing involved to reach the top!
If you look at the model above, you can see the staircase we are descending. Visiting all these Wats was an amazing experience. The intricacy, devotion and sheer man-power put in is mind-boggling. It is wonderful to visit buildings that are so old, and have so much history - we don't have this scale of history back in NZ. (160 years, then its all Maori, or offshore...)
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