Wat Traimit
Wat Traimit ( Thai วัด ไตรมิตร , full name: Wat Traimit Withayaram Worawihan - วัด ไตรมิตร วิทยา ราม วรวิหาร , the tourists mostly known as the "Temple of the Golden Buddha") is a Buddhist temple ( wat ) in District Samphanthawong in Bangkok . It is a Royal Second Class Temple . Wat Traimit is located near Bangkok's Hua Lamphong Central Station and is therefore sometimes confused with Wat Hua Lamphong , which is located east of the station on Rama IV Street (Thanon Phra Ram 4) .
history
Where today Yaowarat Street joins Traimit Street, a Wat Raad was built in the 18th century . Donated by three Chinese, the temple was called "Sam Chin" ("Temple of the Three Chinese") until 1939. The biggest attraction today is a Buddha statue from the Sukhothai period. It was brought in 1935 from Wat Phrayakrai in the Yannawa Temple district, which had to give way to a sawmill. It was there during the reign of King Phra Nang Klao (Rama III) without any knowledge of the statue's material value.
The Buddha was made over 700 years ago and was then probably in Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai , the capital of the Sukhothai Kingdom . It probably came to Ayutthaya in 1403 when the Ayutthaya Kingdom had become powerful enough to subjugate Sukhothai in the 15th century. In an unknown time, a plaster cloak was created around the golden Buddha to conceal its value. He probably stayed at Wat Mahathat until the beginning of the Rattanakosin era, when King Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I) had over 1200 Buddha statues brought from all over the country to his new capital in Bangkok. The gold Buddha was probably one of those statues that were initially set up in Wat Phra Chetuphon .
In 1955 extensive construction work was carried out again on the temple grounds, which resulted in the plaster coat cracking open and revealing pure gold. The statue is just over three meters high and weighs around 5.5 tons. It consists of 4% gold in the base and 40–80% in the body, while the 45 kg face is said to be pure gold. Part of the plaster mask can be viewed in a glass case.
Phra Maha Mondop
The statue of Phra Phuttha Maha Suwan Patimakon was on view for over 50 years in a Wihan that was specially built for her in 1955. The building was in urgent need of restoration, so in 2006 the Chinese community as well as business people from the surrounding district decided to build a new building worthy of the statue's significance. The "Phra Maha Mondop" was built and inaugurated on December 5th, 2008, the birthday of King Bhumibol .
The building is designed as a mondop with three floors: the first and second floors each house a museum (“Knowledge Center of the Community”) of the temple and the Samphanthawong district, and the “Golden Buddha” is on the third floor.
Web links
- Page with photos of Wat Traimit at orientalarchitecture.com (in English)
- Wilfried Stevens: Wat Traimit in Bangkok. onlinezeitung24.de, April 1, 2015
Individual evidence
- ^ Döhring, Karl; Temple complexes in Siam; Bangkok and Berlin 1920; Vol. 1
- ^ Edward Van Roy: Sampheng - Bangkok's Chinatown Inside Out . Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 2007, ISBN 974-9990-33-1
Coordinates: 13 ° 44 ′ 17.1 ″ N , 100 ° 30 ′ 50.3 ″ E