Wat Phra Si Mahathat
About
Wat Phra Si Mahathat Wora Maha Viharn rises in the Bang Khen District of Bangkok, near the Constitution Defense Monument at Lak Si Circle. It holds the status of a first-class royal monastery and is among the most significant Temples in Thailand.
Construction began on 20 March 1941 to commemorate the government's victory over the Boworadet rebellion of 1933. The Temple was the personal initiative of Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram and was first envisaged under the name Wat Prachathipatai, 'Temple of Democracy', the first Temple to be built by the Thai state after the Siamese Revolution of 1932.
The site itself carried political resonance: it lay close to the place where the Khana Ratsadon's forces had defeated the royalists under Prince Boworadet. The Temple thus served not only to mark a government victory but to embody the People's Party's vision for the new political order.
In 1940, the Minister of Justice Thawan Thamrongnawasawat was sent to British India as a special envoy and returned bearing relics: a piece of the Buddha's relic from the Dharmarajika Stupa at Taxila, along with branches of the Bodhi tree from the Mahabodhi Temple and soil from sacred Buddhist sites. These relics were enshrined within the Temple, which was accordingly renamed Wat Phra Si Mahathat, 'Temple of the Sacred Relics'. Construction was completed on 24 June 1942, the tenth anniversary of the Siamese Revolution.
History
The Temple was conceived after the 1932 revolution as the first religious foundation of the new Thai state, and construction commenced in 1941. Its original name was to be Wat Prachathipatai, the Temple of Democracy, situated near the site of the government's 1933 victory over Prince Boworadet's royalist forces.
After sacred relics were brought from Taxila and Bodh Gaya in 1940, the Temple was renamed Wat Phra Si Mahathat and elevated to first-class royal status in 1941. The completion of the construction on 24 June 1942 coincided precisely with the tenth anniversary of the revolution that had reshaped Siam's political life.
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