Embarking on a journey to Bangkok, Thailand can be compelling and unforgettable, and can double as a leisure trip and spiritual voyage. Moreover, a trip to Thailand will never be complete without seeing one of its national treasures, which is no other than the Golden Buddha that’s housed by Wat Traimit (Golden Buddha Temple). The Golden Buddha in solid gold has a weight of about five-and-a-half tons.
As Thailand is home to so many temples with Buddhas, the question that crops up is why the Golden Buddha specifically found in Wat Traimit which is a stone’s throw from the Hualampong Railway Station (and also some markets) has a special significance. That it is made of gold and is outsized at almost five meters in height are but some of the obvious reasons. It’s actually one of the world’s biggest golden icons.
Visitors looking for a respite from the hustle-bustle of the daily grind will find the Wat Traimit (Golden Buddha Temple) and its gracefully seated Buddha a one-of-a-kind experience. Even as it evokes serenity, it casts a powerful impact, and gleaning interesting historical facts makes the experience doubly significant.
The story goes that during the Burmese invasion of the city, the Golden Buddha’s value was concealed with plaster. Still encased as time passed, the Golden Buddha’s real nature was discovered by chance. While being transported to a new temple in Bangkok sometime during the 1950s, it slipped from a hoisting equipment and became all muddied. The temple lore goes that a monk who had this dream of a statue with divine element visited the place where the Buddha was placed and discovered through a crack in the plaster that it was a statue made of gold. The 13th century Buddhist temple is definitely worth seeing, and is among the few that lets sightseers view the Buddha idols.
Wonderful wording you’ve chosen here. It is indeed very impressing. I recently calculated that with the current price of gold at 26 Euro per 1g, just the gold alone has a monetary value of 143 million Euro or 194 million dollar. (Although I must admit I do not know a lot about gold prices and karat and all these things, so I am probably way off).