Wat Pho 🇹🇭

Located on Rattanakosin Island in the Phra Nakhon District of Bangkok, directly south of the Grand Palace, Wat Pho is one of the oldest and largest Buddhist temple complexes in the city. Officially named Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan and ranked among the highest grade of first-class royal temples, this expansive site covers an area of 50 rai, or 80,000 square meters. The complex is organized into a southern residential section for monks and a northern walled compound open to visitors, housing remarkable traditional architecture and sacred art.

Originating during the Ayutthaya period as Wat Photaram, the site was designated a royal monastery under King Taksin before being extensively rebuilt by King Rama I in the late eighteenth century. King Rama I selected it as his main temple, later having part of his ashes placed beneath its central Buddha image. Significant expansion occurred during the reign of King Rama III, who turned the grounds into an early center for public education by adorning buildings with inscribed granite slabs covering topics such as health, history, custom, and literature. Recognized in UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme, these educational illustrations and texts also established the complex as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage, which continues to be taught and practiced there.

Wat Pho contains the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand, with more than one thousand statues representing various periods of Siamese history. The main ordination hall, or Phra Ubosot, features teak doors decorated with mother-of-pearl, stone relief panels depicting the Ramakien epic, and the gilded Phra Buddha Theva Patimakorn statue seated on a crystal and gold pedestal. Enclosing this central hall is a double cloister containing roughly 400 restored Buddha figures, intersected by four directional halls holding historic standing and seated Buddha statues brought from ancient regional capitals.

Among the complex's prominent sights is the hall containing a monumental 46-meter-long reclining Buddha image. Nearby, four 42-meter-tall tiled stupas known as Phra Maha Chedi Si Rajakarn honor the first four Chakri kings, with the green tiled chedi encasing remnants of a historic Ayutthaya Buddha statue. Across the grounds, visitors can observe 91 smaller chedis, stone Chinese statues imported as ship ballast guarding perimeter gateways, two belfries, satellite open pavilions, 24 rock gardens—including one displaying statues in yoga positions—and a garden with a Bodhi tree grown from a lineage in Sri Lanka.

Wat Pho in pictures