Wat Saket
The Wat Saket Ratcha Wora Maha Wihan (also Wat Sraket or Temple of the Golden Mount , English Golden Mount Temple , Thai วัด สระ เกศ ราชวรมหาวิหาร ) is one of the oldest Buddhist temples ( Wat ) in Bangkok . It is located in the Pom Prap Sattru Phai district . Wat Saket is a Royal Second Class Temple .
In the western part of the temple area there is a 79-meter-high, artificially raised mountain topped with a golden chedi , to which 318 steps lead up. It is one of the biggest attractions in Bangkok.
history
Ayutthaya Empire
The complex goes back to the small, unimportant temple Wat Sakae (Thai: วัด สะแก ) from the time of the Ayutthaya Empire . The name means "temple of the Sakae tree" ( Combretum quadrangulare , Thai: สะแก , see: wing nuts ). From this tree z. B. the seeds are used in traditional and modern medicine.
In 1781 King Taksin sent the commander-in-chief of his troops, General Chakri, later King Rama I , to Cambodia in order to win it again as a vassal for his new kingdom. During his campaign, Chao Phraya Chakri heard of a plot to overthrow the king, whereupon he hurried back to the Siamese capital. He arrived there in April 1782. In the area of Wat Sakae he first performed a solemn cleansing ritual before making his way to the palace. The exact events in the palace are the subject of various speculations today, but all lead to the fact that Chao Phraya Chakri was crowned as the first king of the Chakri dynasty he founded. His coronation name was Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok .
King Rama I.
Right at the beginning of his reign, King Phra Phutthayotfa moved his palace from Thonburi to the site of the present-day Grand Palace in Bangkok. Since his capital, like the old capital Ayutthaya, should be surrounded by water, he had a new canal dug east of the city, which led behind Wat Sakae to the already existing Banglampuh Canal. 10,000 Cambodian prisoners of war were used for this work. When the canal was finished, the king had the same workers completely renew the ubosot of Wat Sakae. Since then the temple has been under royal patronage.
The Wat Saket temple, which was located outside the city wall at the time, initially served as a cremation site for the deceased princes and dignitaries, and later for all those who died in the new capital. You hurried past this hill as quickly as possible so as not to have to inhale the stench. Since the poor of the city could not afford the cost of cremation, they were simply buried here, and yet they were hauled out and eaten by the voracious vultures and ubiquitous dogs.
The inauguration of the restored temple took place shortly after the inauguration of Wat Pho in November 1801 and lasted seven days. In memory of the ceremony on the eve of his accession to the throne, the king gave the temple a new rank and name: since then it has been a Royal Second Class Temple and is called Wat Saket , which means temple ( Wat , วัด ) of purification ( Sra , สระ ) of the royal hair ( Ket , เกศ ).
King Rama II
During the reign of King Rama II (Phra Phutthaloetla), the Supreme Patriarch sent a Buddhist embassy to Ceylon towards the end of 1814 to renew traditional relations with the Ceylonese Sangha. After three years the monks returned from an exhausting and adventurous journey. From there they brought with them some offshoots of the Bodhi tree , which comes from the original tree in today's Bodh Gaya , under which the Buddha experienced his enlightenment . One of the offshoots was planted on the site of Wat Saket and is still thriving there today.
In March 1828, the abbot of Wat Saket was appointed Supreme Patriarch of the Thai Sangha . He took up his post at Wat Mahathat .
King Rama III.
Also the third king of the Chakri dynasty , King Rama III. (Phra Nang Klao) showed great interest in Wat Saket. Until the end of his reign he had the temple generously expanded and renovated until it roughly matched its current appearance.
- A richly decorated tabernacle was built for each of the eight boundary stones ( Bai Sema ) of the Ubosot .
- A covered gallery ( Phra Rabieng ) was laid out around the ubosot , outside of which four pairs of chedis were erected, the ubosot itself was surrounded by a colonnade of square columns that support the sweeping roof. The interior walls were decorated with traditional paintings, which, however , had to be restored during the reign of King Phra Nang Klao .
- The wooden kutis of the monks were replaced by brick ones, only the library was kept in its original form. It contains important Buddhist scriptures such as the Tripitaka .
- The king had a cremation site set up north of the kutis, where deceased princesses and high officials were to be cremated . A pavilion for the king, another for family members and one for the musicians were also built.
- To the west of the gallery, King Nang Klao had a new viharn built, which is divided into two rooms inside. In the southern room a 9 m tall standing Buddha statue with the name Phra Attharat was set up. It was brought here from Wat Viharn Thong in Phitsanulok in 1820 . Another Buddha statue from Phitsanulok was to be erected in the northern room, but this has not yet been implemented. Only King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) had a statue ( Luang Pho Dusit ) brought here from Wat Dusit, which had to give way to the construction work on the Dusit Palace and is executed as a seated figure in the pose of submission to Mara.
- Phra Nang Klao commissioned Phra Sri Vivadhana with the construction of a large prang based on the famous Chedi Phu Khao Thong, which still stands northwest of the old capital Ayutthaya and along which the Khlong Mahanak ran. The base of the new Prang was a dodecagon with a side length of 100 m, the interior consisted of earth and stone blocks, which was clad with bricks. As they were just about to build the second floor, the substructure gave way and the brick cladding broke open. The huge structure was supported with thousands of logs. During the repair work, the mountain continued to collapse, so that work on it was initially stopped.
King Mongkut (Rama IV.)
King Mongkut (Rama IV.) Commissioned Phra Sri Vivadhana again to use the huge amount of building materials to build an artificial mountain. This mountain should be equipped with small caves, niches and pavilions in which Buddha statues should be placed. Small chedis should complete the picture. A golden chedi was planned on top of the mountain, to which two staircases would spiral up around the mountain. In this way, the name was justified, the king had planned for his Prang Nang Klao: Goldener Berg (Thai: ภูเขาทอง ), the official name is Phra Boromabanphot (Thai: พระบรม บรรพต - The Best , The First : Borom - บรม ; Mountain : Banphot - บรรพต ).
King Chulalongkorn (Rama V.)
However, it was not until the reign of King Chulalongkorn that the Golden Mountain could finally be completed.
The chedi on the summit stands on a square base, which is reminiscent of the design of the monasteries in Tibet. The base was surrounded by a gallery that was to be used for walking meditation . The gallery could be entered through two doors in the north and in the south. Inside the base of the chedi there is a narrow space with entrances at the four cardinal points. In the middle of this room is a small golden chedi with four small niches in which there are miniature statues of the Buddha. The small chedi contains parts of the Buddha's relics that were found in Piprahwa on the border with Nepal in 1897 . The British government then donated these relics to the King of Siam with a request that they be distributed evenly to the nations that showed interest. Chao Phraya Yamaraj was chosen by King Chulalongkorn to receive the relics and bring them to Bangkok. Delegations from Ceylon, Burma, Japan and Siberia came to get their part. In a solemn procession on May 23, 1899, the Siamese part was brought to Wat Saket and enclosed in the small golden chedi.
Folk festival at Wat Saket
Today in the middle of the twelfth lunar month (November) the public can enter the interior of the chedi. For several days, the stream of believers who climb the 318 steps to pay homage to the relic persists. At the foot of the mountain and in the adjacent streets, small stalls, restaurants and theaters will be set up where the exuberant crowd can entertain.
literature
- Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg : Siam . Bangkok: White Lotus Press 1986.
- R. Lingat: History of Wat Saket . Article in: Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 23 part 3, Bangkok 1930, online [1] (PDF, accessed November 1, 2012; 463 kB).
- Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Thailand: Lords Of Life, The Paternal Monarchy Of Bangkok . Alvin Redman Ltd., London 1960.
- George Bradley McFarland: Thai-English Dictionary . 2nd rev. Stanford ed .: Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-0383-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hesse-Wartegg (1899), pp. 187f.
- ^ Old photograph (circa 1900) of the dilapidated Prang, from the collection of the Cornell University Library (accessed February 17, 2011).
Web links
Coordinates: 13 ° 45 ′ 14 ″ N , 100 ° 30 ′ 24 ″ E