Wat Chakkrawat Rachawat Woramahawihan

About

Tucked into the northwestern corner of Samphanthawong district near the Chao Phraya River, Wat Chakkrawat, formally Wat Chakkrawat Rachawat Woramahawihan, has stood within Bangkok's Chinatown for more than two centuries. The wat sits a short distance from Wat Traimit, the home of the famous golden Buddha, and shares with it a quieter share of the neighbourhood's devotional life.

Known in earlier centuries as Wat Sam Pluem, the monastery predates the cutting of Yaowarat Road in 1892. Its roots reach back at least two hundred years to the reign of King Rama I, when Rattanakosin was first established as the new capital of Siam in 1782. The surrounding district, then called Sampheng, became home to Chinese merchants displaced from Tha Tian to make way for the Grand Palace.

During the reign of King Nangklao (Rama III), the nobleman Chaophraya Bodindecha undertook a six-year restoration of the entire complex and dug a khlong to drain water from the Temple pond. Once monks from other monasteries had been invited to reside, the renewed Temple was presented to the king and elevated to royal status in 1825.

A principal vihara once enshrined the Phra Bang Buddha image; when King Mongkut later returned that image to Luang Prabang, the Phra Nak was installed in its place. Beside the assembly halls a curious crocodile pond still exists, a quiet relic of a wartime story now woven into the Temple's local lore.

History

The monastery predates the founding of Bangkok itself, standing in what was then called Sampheng when Chinese merchants settled there after King Rama I moved them from Tha Tian to make way for the Grand Palace in 1782. Known in its early years as Wat Sam Pluem, it was rebuilt over six years by the nobleman Chaophraya Bodindecha during the reign of King Rama III, who invited monks from other monasteries to reside there before presenting the renewed Temple to the king for elevation to royal status in 1825. Rama III's own kathin visit later prompted further rebuilding, and in the reign of King Mongkut the Phra Bang Buddha image was returned to Luang Prabang and replaced by the Phra Nak image still enshrined today.

Significance

Beside its halls the wat keeps a modest pond that carries one of Chinatown's best-loved stories: during the Second World War a one-eyed crocodile preyed on the Chao Phraya's boatmen until a monk of this wat caught it and raised it here until it died naturally, giving the Temple its enduring local nickname. Together with its neighbour Wat Traimit, home of the great golden Buddha, Wat Chakkrawat anchors the devotional life of a district built by the Chinese community the kings of Siam once resettled here.

Architecture

Rattanakosin-period royal Thai Temple architecture, with a Chinese-influenced character typical of Bangkok's Chinatown