Chinatown - Bangkok - page 217

Possibly sometime in the 17th century, at what is thought to have been a time of great
danger to the Siamese kingdom - presumably prior to an invasion from Burma - the
Buddha was rendered with a plaster exterior in an attempt to disguise it from the looting
hordes. And it worked. After various assaults, the Burmese hauled off vast quantities of
Thai treasure, but this most valuable of all Buddha images - indeed, the most valuable in
all of Buddhism - remained as shabby-looking and anonymous as intended. It was moved
first to Bangkok and later to Wat Traimit, the only temple in the Chinatown area modest
enough to take such a world-weary Buddha. And thus it remained, beneath a tin roof, until
the mid-1950s, when the temple had collected enough money to build a proper shelter for
the image. During the move the Buddha was dropped from a crane, an act of such ill for-
tune that the workers are said to have downed tools and run. When the abbot inspected the
Buddha the following day he found the plaster had cracked and, after centuries of an-
onymity, the golden Buddha's true identity was finally revealed.
The image remained seated in its modest pavilion until 2009, smiling benevolently
down upon an underwhelming and seemingly endless procession of tour groups, which
seem to have scared off most of the genuine worshippers. But Wat Traimit's days of
poverty are long gone. A new marble hall has been built with a combination of Chinese-
style balustrades and a steep, golden Thai-style roof. Surrounding it is a narrow strip of
grass watered via mist fountains.
The 2nd floor of the structure is home to the Phra Buddha Maha Suwanna Patimakorn Exhibition
OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP (admission 100B; 8am-5pm Tue-Sun) , which has exhibits on how
the statue was made, discovered and came to arrive at its current home, while the 3rd floor
is home to the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP (admission 100B;
8am-5pm Tue-Sun) , a small but engaging museum with multimedia exhibits on the history
of Bangkok's Chinatown and its residents.