Wat Phra Kaew and The Grand Palace

Before I begin the blog entry proper, I just wanted to share this lovely tidbit of trivia with you =).

Krungthep Mahanakhon, Amon Rattanakosin Mahintara Ayutthaya, Mahadilok phop Noppharat, Ratchathani Burirom, Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan, Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit, Sakkathatitya Witsanuk (Visnuk) Amprasit

The longest place name in the world roughly translates as: Great City of Angels, City of Immortals, Magnificent Jeweled City of the God Indra, Seat of the King of Ayutthaya, City of Gleaming Temples, City of the King's Most Excellent Palace and Dominions, Home of Vishnu and All the Gods -- it is the full name for Bangkok, in Thai ~ Try saying that five times fast!!

Today, I had the joy of visiting one of the most holy of temples in all of Thailand – Wat Phra Kaew – or, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. If you pick up any book on travel, art or culture for Thailand, you will invariably see some of Wat Phra Kaew’s glittering spires, gigantic golden chedi and iconic statues of mythical beings that form part of the national, cultural and religious narrative of Thailand.

For my part, I don’t feel as though words are enough to describe the awesome beauty and magnificence of the buildings that are present on the temple grounds. Anybody who has ever seen Wat Phra Kaew up close can attest to this. Better to show you with pictures since I've had complaints that sometimes, I get a little too wordy =). Take this as my way of accounting for the fact that there has been and will be long entries in the future with a lot less visual dazzling...














You might recall that one of the things I did back in November was go see the opera Ayodhya. The story line is based upon the Thai version of Hindu Ramayana – the Ramakien. As somebody who is deeply intrigued and fascinated by history and its links to literature, I was very excited to find that there are extensive murals depicting scenes from the Ramakien along the temple corridors. As geeky as this sounds, I was quite proud to be able to look at some of these scenes and know exactly what they are trying to show. One of the amazing things about the murals is that it is pretty much one continuous painting. There are no breaks in the story line and it is pretty linear in that the paintings start at the beginning and progress through the events of the story to the end. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story line and want to read more, please check out this site and read about it on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana. Here are some photos I snapped of the murals. On the other hand, If you are familiar with the Ramakien, you should easily be able to identify the second to last scene, which depicts Sita and her willingness to suffer trial by fire in order to prove her innocence. Also, the last photo shows the restoration of one section of the mural.





One of the things I found a little peculiar was the model of Angkor Wat that was located near the giant golden chedi at the center of the temple grounds. There were no signs that provided an explanation as to why there was an ancient Khmer temple complex present within Wat Phra Kaew. Frankly, I felt like it was a little silly and out of place and probably placed there for tourists as it looked completely out of place. The architectural style of the structures at the Angkor Wat complex are nothing like that of the traditional Thai style architecture of the buildings that were present within the Wat Phra Kaew complex. Anyway, I should say that at various times in the history of Southeast Asia, Angkor Wat had been under the control of the Thais, only to be recaptured by the Khmers several years later. At one point in history, the Khmers won a decisive victory over the Thais of the Ayutthaya period at a place called Siem Reap (that’s right, the modern day resort city just outside the Angkor complex). Siem Reap roughly translates into “the place of victory over the Siamese.” I think from that point on, the Khmers were able to maintain control over Angkor, the oftentimes disputed legacy of their ancestors. I still hear some Thais mumble something about how they should be the ones who have possession of Angkor. Apparently, the Thai history textbooks have something to say that might tell us why the model of Angkor can be found at Wat Phra Kaew, but since I can’t read Thai...I'll just have to keep on wondering why they model has been placed there.


The actual Wat Phra Kaew is the temple that houses the Emerald Buddha – it is one of the most revered images of the Buddha in all of Thailand and as such, photographs are not allowed. It was a hot day when I went to the temple complex, but since it is considered holy ground, I had to be “properly dressed.” This amounts to having to wear long pants and close-toed shoes in over 90-degree weather. All of this, just to get a glimpse of what was to me, yet another Buddha image. One little quirk that I found interesting was the fact that the figure has different “outfits” that correspond to the seasons. It has robes for the rainy season, one for the hot season and one for the cool season. So I took my shoes off and placed them in the area marked “for foreigners” (yes, there is an area for shoes belonging to Thais, don’t ask me why, I don’t know…). Aware of the rule against taking photographs, I put my camera down but conveniently forgot to turn it off. And then I accidentally pushed the button that just happened to record an image of this figure. I am so ashamed of myself that I cannot bear to post it for all to see and so you will just have to wait until I get home to see it (translation: I don’t want to have the tourist police knock on my door and confiscate my contraband photo of the Emerald Buddha).



This is a photo of what I've previously described as "making merit." You buy gold foil and affix it to an image of the Buddha. It looks like this particular image is about merited out!


Adjacent to Wat Phra Kaew is the Grand Palace. At one point in time, it was inhabited by the royal family, but nowadays, it is used mostly in a ceremonial capacity and is used as a gathering space for official state business and to host visiting royals and officials from other countries. It was a stately building, but not much when compared to the temples nearby. This is a picture of me in front of it followed by a picture of me with a guard!



I should note that like most places of interest in Thailand, there is a foreigner excise tax to visit Wat Phra Kaew (aka admission fee) that is waived for Thai citizens. Yeah. Try to have that be the case for tourists to visit the Statue of Liberty, the Space Needle or the Peace Arch. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all ride to the top of the Space Needle for free?? Thankfully, the fee is nothing that will put too big a dent in your visit Thailand funds as it amounts to 250 baht, which is about $8.00.