Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the plaster-covered gold image along with the bronze Buddha were placed in Wat Phraya
Krai, where they remained as the temple fell into ruins around them.
For many years, despite the full knowledge that this was the world's biggest solid-gold
Buddha, the image remained housed in the same modest chapel that had been built to
hold the plaster image. My own first view of it was thirty years ago, and I was surprised at
the lack of security, although, reasoning it through, I realised the image would have been
very difficult to steal. The image was cast in nine sections that fit smoothly together and
a key was discovered in the base that can be used to dismantle the figure for transport-
ation: but first, of course, the figure has to be lifted so that the key can be reached. In
recent years Wat Traimit has undergone substantial renovations and rebuilding to reflect
the reputation of its illustrious image, which resides now on the top level of a magnificent
building clad in white marble and topped by a gold spire. here is a museum here that de-
tails the finding of the image and includes the old pulley and ropes that were used on the
fateful day in 1955, along with fragments of the plaster casing. An attempt has been made
to establish a date for the plaster using carbonation techniques but the casing proved to
be highly porous and less than an inch thick, and so no results were obtained. Radioact-
ive dating was attempted on the black lacquer on the casing, but that doesn't appear to
have yielded any results either. Varying measurements have been given for the height and
width of the figure, which is seated in the Subduing Mudra position, but it is certainly over
3 metres (9.8 ft) high and 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) across the lap. The weight is 5.5 tons, give or
take half a ton. Is it really solid gold? Yes, but different sources claim different purity: one
source says it is 18 karat, another says that the sections from the base to the neck are forty
percent pure gold, from the chin to the forehead 80 percent, and the hair and top-knot
ninety-nine percent. Like all the best stories there remains considerable mystery about the
Gold Buddha, but the image has a Mona Lisa quality in that it seems to have an internal
life and to be quietly appraising the viewer with a sense of amusement.
On the other side of Yaowarat Road, and looking like the entrance to a Chinese shrine,
is a large gate, raked at an odd angle to the road for feng shui purposes. This is not ac-
tually a shrine but is the premises of the Thian Fa Foundation, founded in 1902 by the
five main language groups in Chinatown in an early move to unite the essentially dispar-
ate community. Traditional Chinese medicine was offered free of charge to poor Chinese
immigrants, and today modern medicine has been added to the services provided by the
foundation. In the forecourt of the hospital is a 3-metre (9.8-ft) gilded wooden image of
Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy, who presides over the premises. Carved from a single
piece of sandalwood, the image was brought from China and is believed to be 400 years
