Thailand: Touring Temples

A huge part of our visit to Thailand involved checking out the temples. You can find a temple on basically any street. To compare it to the western world, imagine every church in every community had its own intricate design, filled with its own art, had its own unique history, and each one was open all day for anyone to walk in and look around. There were hundreds!

We saw upwards of 50+ temples and although there were similar features, each one was different in some way. A few of our favourites that we explored and are excited to tell you about are Wat Saket, Wat Arun, and Wat Pho. (Wat: a Buddhist monastery or temple).

Wat Saket (The Golden Mount)

This landmark was a special spot to visit for Ryan and I. With all of the chaos of Bangkok city, we needed a place we could retreat to and find some peace, quiet and even some fresh air. Wat Saket, although located in the middle of the city, seemed to be a popular choice to get away from it all. With temperatures reaching up to 35°C, and 344 steps to the top, we decided climbing it first thing in the morning was our best bet. It was exactly what we needed. We made it all the way to the top and were amazed at what we saw.  Lining the roof of the temple were hundreds of wind bells (they are similar to wind chimes, but they are composed of a single small bell with a gold leaf that rings as it blows in the wind). They were so beautiful and the sound was mesmerizing. After walking around and taking in the panoramic sites, we went up onto the roof to see the giant gold Chedi. It was incredibly peaceful up there. There was a huge gong you could hit with a hammer so of course we tried it out. The vibrations created incredibly deep tones that were very relaxing to hear.

Here are some pictures from our time at Wat Saket:

 

Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn)

This temple is located beside the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. We took a water taxi to it for 15 Baht ($0.60 CAD) each. We had heard so many good things about this temple, so we were looking forward to seeing inside. From the moment we entered we were taken aback by the beauty and all of the details! As we looked closer, we realized that the details in this temple were all made from different pieces of pottery! The walls were filled with flowers and intricate designs, all individually made.  On all four sides you can see a series of guards, which are supposed to be holding up and protecting the temple.  There were many guards, and each one looked different from the next. At one point we thought we spotted some Holland Delft, but researched it a bit more and discovered that only Chinese pottery was used in making the details. 

The temple was filled with high steps that you could climb so you could walk the many different exterior levels of the temple. It was a really awesome way to see a temple. Most of the time, you can only go inside a temple, so exploring the outside was a unique experience.

We explored for quite some time before we got rained out. Wat Arun was definitely smaller than we expected but it was still beautiful and we were happy we were able to see it. Apparently it is best to see at sunset or sunrise because of the way the sun hits it.

Here are some pictures of Wat Arun:

 

Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha)

This temple was huge. It is one of Bangkok’s oldest temples and is known as one of the first class royal temples in Thailand. We spent hours there roaming around the grounds checking out different structures within it. There are over one thousand Buddha images throughout the complex. There were over 90 mini chedis and 4 large chedis (42 feet high). Seeing the large ones was probably my favourite part. Each one was dedicated to a previous King from Rama I through to King Rama IV and each contains some of their ashes. They all had a different base colour (orange, white, yellow and blue) as well as hundreds of thousands of colourful tiles decorated from top to bottom.

The Reclining Buddha was also a really beautiful monument to see. It measures 46 metres long and 15 metres high. It was so big, they had to build the temple around it. The reclining Buddha is the 3rd largest reclining Buddha in the world (just behind Indonesia for first and Myanmar for second) and is covered in gold leaf. As you make your way down from one end to the other, there are brass bowls lining the inside of the temple. We learned that if you wanted to “make merit” you could go and buy some coins and drop them into the different bowls. It was so beautiful to hear and see! Once we made it to Buddha’s feet, we noticed that they looked different. There were images of Buddhist enlightenment carved in the bottom of the feet and the images were completely made out of mother of pearl.  

Here are some pictures of Wat Pho:

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Here are a few more pictures that we took at other temples. We had hundreds to choose from so we just picked a few of our favourites! Enjoy!