Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Wat Saket dates back to the Ayutthaya era. No one knows exactly when it was founded,
but the temple was used by Chao Phraya Chakri who stopped here on his way back from
Cambodia to Thonburi in 1782 to suppress the riots that had erupted in the wake of the
apparent insanity of King Taksin. With the king removed and Chakri now enthroned as
Rama
I
, he ordered the temple to be enlarged, and decreed that it should be used for
cremations and funeral rites. Rama
III
decided to build a replica of Ayutthaya's Chedi Phu
Khao Thong, the Chedi of the Golden Mountain, in the temple grounds and thus symbol-
ise the city's standing in Buddhist cosmology. As with the original, it was to be a massive
structure, an artificial hill that could be seen from all parts of the city. The records have it
that the
chedi
was to be fifty fathoms in dimension, and the king asked for donations of
logs to act as the foundations. Thousands of logs were laid out in the soft ground in a raft-
like fashion, and the structure built upon them. However, the ground proved to be too soft
for the weight: the
chedi
tumbled into a heap of mud and bricks, and stayed that way for
several years.
Rama
IV
, the king who employed Anna as a governess, revived the project. Reasoning
that the huge mound was best left where it was, he used another thousand teak logs for
reinforcement and ordered a small
chedi
to be built on the summit. Anna left Siam in
1868, after the death of the king, by which time Golden Mount had become a prominent
landmark. It was the highest point in the otherwise completely flat landscape. The Amer-
ican writer Frank Vincent ascended in 1871, and commented that very little of Bangkok
could be seen because of the luxuriant vegetation of the city. It was Rama
V
, who as Chu-
lalongkorn had been one of Anna's pupils, who completed the
chedi
in the design we see
today, a golden bell-shaped structure that houses a Buddha relic from India. During World
War
II
the hill began to show alarming signs of erosion, and concrete walls were added,
finally bringing the story of Golden Mount to the present day.
A climb to the top reveals a view that remains one of the most spectacular in Bangkok.
There is still something almost rural about the hill, surrounded as it is by trees, and with
shrines and gravestones set in its sides. One enters through a small gate and climbs 318
steps that wind around the massive base. The ascent is a gentle one. There are speakers
set at regular intervals into the balustrade, and one is accompanied all the way up by a
murmuring discourse. On the summit is a light and airy room equipped at the four points
of the compass with binoculars. A tiny staircase leads to an observation platform right
on top, and there is a small chapel from where one can peer down on the innocent red
rooftops of Wat Saket, and across a city that is far from buried in lush vegetation but
