Place · royal Buddhist temple · Thailand
Wat Pho, Bangkok
Also known as Wat Po, Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram, Wat Photaram, วัดโพธิ์
An older temple directly south of the Grand Palace that Rama I rebuilt from 1788 as his own main temple, later enlarged by Rama III. Round its ordination hall runs the carved counterpart of Wat Phra Kaew's painted epic: about 150 stone panels of the Ramakien set into the exterior balustrade. Its name recalls the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, so a Thai royal temple named for an Indian tree is framed by an Indian epic.
- Date
- 1788–None
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 13.746, 100.494
Worth knowing
The Ramakien panels were not carved for it: they were recovered from a temple in Ayutthaya, so the stone epic is itself salvage from the city the Burmese sacked in 1767.
Connections (3)
- Craft tradition ofRamakien
Where Wat Phra Kaew paints the Ramakien, Wat Pho carves it. The exterior balustrade round Wat Pho's ordination hall carries about 150 stone panels of the epic, and John Cadet used these bas-reliefs to illustrate his book The Ramakien. The panels were recovered from a temple in Ayutthaya, so they came from the old capital rather than being carved for Bangkok. Anyone looking for a carved Ramakien in Bangkok should look here: Wat Phra Kaew's version is painted.
- Site adjacencyWat Phra Kaew, Bangkok
Wat Pho stands directly south of the Grand Palace, within which Wat Phra Kaew sits, and both were built or rebuilt by Rama I in the first decade of Bangkok: Wat Phra Kaew begun in 1783, Wat Pho rebuilt from 1788. Between them they hold the Ramakien in the two media of the Thai court, painted in 178 mural scenes round one cloister and carved in some 150 stone panels round the other's ordination hall.
- Monument relocationAyutthaya, Thailand
The carved Ramakien panels on the balustrade of Wat Pho's ordination hall were recovered from a temple in Ayutthaya and reset in Bangkok, a generation after the Burmese sack of 1767 had left the old capital in ruins. Wat Pho also received hundreds of Buddha images Rama I gathered from northern Thailand, and the eight-metre standing Buddha in its eastern viharn came from Ayutthaya, so much of the temple is assembled from older Siamese sites.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, "Wat Pho" and "Ramakien". Dennis O'Neil (2008), as cited there; John Cadet, The Ramakien, illustrated with the bas-reliefs of Wat Phra Jetubon.
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