Wat Suthat

About

Wat Suthat Thepwararam stands within the Inner Rattanakosin area of Bangkok, just opposite the soaring red posts of the Giant Swing. The temple ranks as a first-class royal monastery, and construction began under King Rama I in 1807, continuing through three reigns before its completion in 1847 under King Rama III.

The temple was originally named Wat Maha Sutthawat and was raised in a grove of Combretum trees. King Rama II personally helped to carve the wooden doors of the vihara during his reign but did not live to see the project finished. The wat enshrines Phra Si Sakyamuni — a large Buddha image transferred from Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai — within its great vihara, with further images installed in the ubosot and the sala kan parian.

Around the lower terrace of the principal vihara stand twenty-eight small Chinese pagodas symbolising the twenty-eight Buddhas of Theravada tradition. The royal ashes of King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) were enshrined in 1950 at the throne base of Phra Si Sakyamuni, where an annual royal merit-making rite is observed.

The ubosot is regarded as the longest ordination hall in Thailand. Its principal image, Phra Buddha Trilokachet, sits in the gesture of subduing Mara, with inner walls covered in murals by court artists of the Rama III period. Around the hall stand eight boundary-stone shrines, and the cloister wall is punctuated by raised pavilions called koi proi than, from which alms were once scattered during state ceremonies.

History

Construction of Wat Suthat began in 1807 under King Rama I, who chose the low-lying site in the inner city for a temple to enshrine the great Buddha image Phra Si Sakyamuni transferred from Sukhothai. The king died before the project was complete, and work resumed under King Rama II, who himself carved the wooden doors of the vihara before his own passing.

The temple was finally completed in 1847 under King Rama III, who conferred its present official name. Under King Mongkut the principal Buddha images of the vihara, ubosot, and preaching hall were given harmonised names: Phra Si Sakyamuni, Phra Buddha Trilokachet, and Phra Phuttha Sretthamuni. King Ananda Mahidol's royal ashes were enshrined in 1950, and an annual rite is observed on 9 June each year.