Wat Saket (The Golden Mount)

The first stop today was to be Wat Saket but sometimes, the journey is as enjoyable as the destination. On our way, we walked a very interesting route from our hotel to Wat Saket along the canal. Bought some fruit called chompoo (Thai rose apple which isn't really an apple, but tastes like a juicy apple) from a cart, and a lady beckoned us to take a seat at her coffee stand. So we paused, and sat on this back street and saw a small slice of real life for the people of this small area.

Wat Saket is Thailand's most revered temple due to its close association with the Royal family. This stands out with its 58 meter high golden chedi (def: also called a stupa or pagoda, the most important and sacred structure of a wat or temple complex) on the artificial hill top of the Golden Mount overlooking the temple complex at the base of the mound. The Wat dates back to the Ayutthaya period and was later restored by King Rama I. At the time, cremations were forbidden within the city walls and so they would be held here. In the early 1800s, during the reign of Rama II a plague killed 30,000 people who were then brought here for cremation. Every year the communicable disease (cholera) kept returning for forty years, the worst being in 1849 when over 5,000 died in Bangkok. The massive pile of bodies attracted vultures creating a gruesome scene with Buddhist monks praying over the dead, terrible to imagine.

Under King Rama III (1824-1851) they found that it was impossible to build a chedi here due to the soft soil and so the king had a mound of mud and bricks constructed to add stability to the base of the chedi. The Mount was reinforced with 1,000 teak logs to prevent the chedi and Mount from sinking. The present chedi which stands on the Golden Mount was constructed during the reign of Rama V (1853-1910) to hold a relic of Buddha which was given to him as a gift by the British. To further preserve and protect the Mount from eroding reinforced walls were added during World War II.Read more