Wat Traimit 🇹🇭

Wat Traimit Witthayaram Worawihan is a royal Theravada Buddhist temple located in the Samphanthawong district within the Chinatown area of Bangkok, Thailand. It is celebrated primarily for housing a massive solid-gold Buddha statue, as well as being the site of the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center.

According to traditional accounts, the landmark was originally established by three Chinese companions, earning it the earlier name Wat Sam Chin, or temple of the three Chinese. Believed to date back to the reign of King Rama III in the early nineteenth century, the complex underwent extensive reconstruction throughout the 1930s and 1940s. It was officially given its modern name, meaning three friends, in February 1940, and was subsequently elevated to a second-class royal temple in 1956.

The temple's most famous treasure is the Phra Phuttha Maha Suwanna Patimakon, a solid-gold Buddha figure originally crafted in the Sukhothai style. In 1935, the statue was transferred to the site from the abandoned Wat Phraya Krai while concealed under a thick layer of plaster. During a 1955 attempt to move the image into a newly constructed vihara, the statue was accidentally dropped, cracking its exterior stucco shell and uncovering the precious gold interior. It received its present official name in 1992.

The complex stands as a notable example of Thai Buddhist architecture from the era following the end of absolute monarchy. Residences for the monastic community were erected in 1937, followed by the completion of the main ordination hall, or ubosot, in 1947. Designed in an applied Thai style by architect Luang Wisansinlapakam, the hall and residential structures earned an ASA Architectural Conservation Award in 2011.

Today, the golden image resides on the highest floor of the Phra Maha Mondop, a four-story, marble-covered pavilion designed by Arvuth Ngoenchuklin. Completed and inaugurated in February 2010 to honor King Bhumibol Adulyadej, this pavilion features a multi-tiered gilded roof with a spired finial, offering views across the surrounding Yaowarat district. The lower levels serve as educational spaces: one level details the origin, stucco concealment, and 1955 discovery of the golden statue, while another presents the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center, documenting the history and contributions of Chinese immigrants to Bangkok's Chinatown from the early Rattanakosin period to modern times.

Wat Traimit in pictures