Buddha’s in Bangkok

Buddha’s in Bangkok

So no prizes for guessing I’m in Bangkok! My head is still spinning from the journey and heat/humidity and general business of this city. It is a year since the ninth King of Thailand died and there are hundreds of thousands of extra people here (Bangkok is already made up of ten million people!) for anniversary ceremonies and events. Because of this happening the Kings Palace is shut for a month so I went to explore Wat Pho temple which is near by.

It is an amazing collection of buildings and structures highly mosaiced, painted and gold leafed. It’s like a total rabbit warren of paths around the buildings with little green areas with waterfalls and bonze trees. There are some shaded areas where the architecture is designed to help you to be cooler in the heat of the day.

There are Buddhas everywhere. all sorts of poses all sorts of materials all sorts of sizes.

The main attraction here is the reclining Buddha. It is 46 meters long and 15 meters high it is enormous! It is very hard to get across the vastness of this sculpture in a picture. Just think a huge hall filled with a buddha.

This Temple has the most wonderful paintings on the walls down either side of the Buddha. Every surface is covered and sumptuous.  It is clear that some of the paintings are older than others some have been restored and are brighter. I prefer the older peeling ones mostly they give a sense of history and of the story of the place.

A busy but rewarding and inspiring visit. It will be interesting to see where these new experiences lead me…

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