Temples In Thailand

Wat Saket is easily recognized by its golden Chedi atop a fortress-like hill near the pier for Bangkok’s east-west klong ferry. Although Wat Saket is a royal temple in the first grade and even the present Supreme Patriarch came from here, but a tourist has known Wat Saket as a simple temple and an undistinguished except for the Golden Mount or Phu Khao Thong.

The large Chedi has begun by King Rama III but collapsed because the soft soil beneath would not support it. The resulting mud-and-brick hill was left to sprout weeds until King Rama IV built a small Chedi on its crest.

Rama V built the golden chedi to house a relic of Buddha, said to be from India or Nepal, given to him by the British. The concrete walls were added during World War II to keep the structure from collapsing. All around the temple are the accommodation where the monks live and go to school.

The Golden Mount, a short but breathtaking climb that’s best made in the morning, is most interesting for its vista of over Rattanakosin Island and the rooftops of Bangkok. Every year in the 12th lunar month (late October to mid November - for nine days around the full moon) Wat Saket hosts Bangkok’s most important temple fair, when the Golden Mount is wrapped with red cloth and a carnival erupts around it, with food and trinket stalls, theatrical performances, freak shows, animal circuses, and other monkey business. People come here at this time to pay respect to Lord Buddha’s relics, and to rejoice in the festive occasion. However, at present times, the Golden Mount festival is not as popular as it used to be in the olden days.