Before you rises Phu Khao Thong, the Golden Mount of Wat Saket. For a long time it was the highest point in Bangkok, and it isn't a natural hill.

1A chedi that sank

The temple already existed in Ayutthaya times; Rama I restored it and gave it its present name. In the first half of the 19th century, Rama III set out to build a gigantic chedi here, but Bangkok's soft soil couldn't bear the weight and the structure collapsed. For years the brick ruins lay abandoned until vegetation covered them and turned them into a hill. Rama IV began a smaller chedi on top, completed under Rama V; in the late 19th century relics attributed to the Buddha, found at Piprahwa in India, were enshrined inside.

2The Ghost Gate

Because Wat Saket lay outside the city wall, it was one of the places where the dead were cremated: doing so inside the city was frowned upon. Bodies were carried out through a gate people called Pratu Phi, the "Ghost Gate", a name the nearby junction still bears. In 1820 a cholera epidemic killed tens of thousands, and the temple couldn't cope: vultures came for the bodies, and "the vultures of Wat Saket" lived on in memory as an image of death.

According to tradition, the name Saket recalls that Rama I washed his hair here on returning from a military campaign.

3What to look for

  • The golden chedi crowning the hill.
  • The bells lining the staircase.
  • The vulture sculptures beside the path, in memory of the epidemic.
Vulture sculptures beside a lying figure on the way up the Golden Mount
The sculptures recall the cholera epidemic of 1820 and the "vultures of Wat Saket".

Documented

The hill formed from the ruins of Rama III's great chedi, which collapsed; the present chedi was completed under Rama V, and during the 1820 cholera epidemic the temple received thousands of bodies.

Oral tradition

The explanation of the name Saket, from Rama I washing his hair on his return from war, is a tradition.

Sources and credits

Wat Saket Ratchaworamahawihan (temple information); Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT); Thai Wikipedia, «วัดสระเกศราชวรมหาวิหาร».

Photos:

  • Golden chedi on the white terrace of the Golden Mount at Wat Saket: Christophe95, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Vulture sculptures beside a lying figure on the way up the Golden Mount: Deepak-nsk, CC0.

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