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| Golden spire |
Bangkok has many interesting and beautiful Buddhist temples. What Traimit is one of them because it has the largest solid gold statue of Buddha. It is known as the Temple of the Golden Buddha. It is located near Hua Lamphong Railway Station. built by the British at the end of the 19th century, and at the western side of Chinatown.
Interestingly, the sitting statue of Buddha had been hidden under a layer of white plaster for years probably to hide it from potential theft although this would have been difficult for a 4.5m high structure that weights tons. As they were lifting the statue to place it in a new temple, it fell and this is how they discovered it was made of solid gold underneath!
It dates back to the 13th century and is in the Sukhothai style that has often been compared to the Greek style. Sukhothai was a former capital of Siam in the centre north of the country. The other well-known style for statues is the Ayutthaya style. (Ayutthaya was the former capital of Siam before Bangkok).
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| Head of Golden Buddha |
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The Golden Buddha
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| Gate detail (gold on lacquer) |
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| Wall design |
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| Wat Traimit seen from Chinatown |
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