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The Golden Buddha, officially titled Phra Phuttha Maha Suwanna Patimakon (; ), commonly known in Thai as Phra Sukhothai Traimit (), is a
gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
Maravijaya Attitude Māravijaya attitude is an attitude of Buddha in Thai art of which the seated Buddha is putting his hand in the relax posture towards to the ground, loosely holding his knee. The other hand is on his lap. His eyes, sometimes closed, look down to ...
seated
Buddharupa Much Buddhist art uses depictions of the historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha, which are known as () in Sanskrit and Pali. These may be statues or other images such as paintings. The main figure in an image may be someone else who has obtained ...
statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...
, with a weight of 5.5
tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000  kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...
s (5,500
kilogram The kilogram (also spelled kilogramme) is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand grams. It has the unit symbol kg. The word "kilogram" is formed from the combination of the metric prefix kilo- (m ...
s). It is located in the temple of
Wat Traimit Wat Traimit Witthayaram Worawihan () is a Theravada Buddhist temple (wat) in Samphanthawong district, the Chinatown area of the Thai capital Bangkok. Probably dating to the early Rattanakosin period, it was previously known as Wat Sam Chin () an ...
,
Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...
,
Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
. At one point in its history, the statue was covered with a layer of
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
and coloured glass to conceal its true value, and it remained in this condition for almost 200 years, ending up as what was then a pagoda of minor significance. During relocation of the statue in 1955, the plaster was chipped off and the beautiful shining gold revealed.


History

The origins of this statue are uncertain. It is made in the
Sukhothai Dynasty The Sukhothai Kingdom was a post-classical Siamese kingdom ( ''maṇḍala'') in Mainland Southeast Asia surrounding the ancient capital city of Sukhothai in present-day north-central Thailand. It evolved from a trading hub to a city-state in ...
style of the 13th–14th centuries, though it could have been made after that time. The head of the statue is egg-shaped, which indicates its origin in the Sukhothai period. Given that Sukhothai art had Indian influences and metal figures of the
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
made in India used to be taken to various countries mostly during the Pala period. Later, the statue was probably moved from Sukhothai to
Ayutthaya Ayutthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia may refer to: * Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Thai kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767 ** Ayutthaya Historical Park, the ruins of the old capital city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom * Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province (locall ...
, about 1403.History of Golden Buddha
Thai Buddhist website
Some scholars believe the statue is mentioned in the somewhat controversial Ram Khamhaeng stele. In lines 23–27 of the first stone slab of the stele, "a gold Buddha image" is mentioned as being located "in the middle of Sukhothai City", interpreted as being a reference to the Wat Traimit Golden Buddha. At some point, the statue was completely plastered over to prevent it from being stolen. The statue was covered with a thick layer of
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
, which was painted and inlaid with bits of coloured glass. It is believed that this plastering-over took place before the destruction of Ayutthaya kingdom by Burmese invaders in 1767. The statue remained among the ruins of Ayutthaya without attracting much attention. In 1801, King
Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke Phutthayotfa Chulalok (born Thongduang; 20 March 1737 – 7 September 1809), also known by his regnal name Rama I, was the founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom (now Thailand) and the first King of Siam from the reigning Chakri dynasty. He ascen ...
(Rama I) of Siam, after establishing Bangkok as a new capital city of the Kingdom, and after commissioning the construction of many temples in Bangkok, ordered that various old Buddha images should be brought to Bangkok from the ruined temples around the country. At the time of King
Rama III Nangklao (born Thap; 31 March 1788 – 2 April 1851), also known by his regnal name Rama III, was the third king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, ruling from 21 July 1824 to 2 April 1851. Nangklao was the eldest surviving son of King Rama II. ...
(1824–1851), the statue, still covered with stucco, was installed as the principal Buddha image in the main temple building of Wat Chotanaram (Wat Phraya Krai) in Bangkok. When Wat Chotanaram, located near Chinatown on the site of modern-day
Asiatique Asiatique: The Riverfront is a large open-air Shopping mall, mall in Bangkok, Thailand. It occupies the former docks of the East Asiatic Company, and faces the Chao Phraya River and Charoen Krung Road. The complex opened in 2012 after extensive r ...
, fell into disrepair and was closed, the statue was moved to its present location at the nearby Wat Traimit in 1935. At the time, Wat Traimit was a pagoda of minor significance (like hundreds of other Buddhist temples that exist in Bangkok). Since the temple didn't have a building big enough to house the statue, it was kept for 20 years under a simple tin roof. The true identity of this statue had been forgotten for almost 200 years.


Discovery of the golden statue

In 1954, a new Viharn building was built at the temple to house the statue. It was moved to its new location on 25 May 1955; there are a variety of accounts of what exactly happened next, but it is clear that during the final attempt to lift the statue from its pedestal, the ropes broke and the statue fell hard on the ground. At that moment, some of the plaster coating chipped off, allowing the gold surface underneath to be seen. Work was immediately stopped so that an evaluation could be made on the statue. All the plaster was carefully removed and during the process, photos were taken and are now displayed in the Temple for visitors. Pieces of the actual plaster are also on public display. When all the plaster was removed, it was found that the gold statue actually consisted of ten parts that fit smoothly together. A key was also found encased in plaster at its base, which can be used to disassemble the statue, allowing for easier transportation. The golden statue was discovered very close to the commemoration of the twenty-fifth Buddhist Era (2500 years since Gautama Buddha's passing) so the Thai news media was full of reports and many Buddhists regarded the occurrence as miraculous. On 14 February 2010, a large new building was inaugurated at the Wat Traimit Temple to house the Gold Buddha. The building also contains the Bangkok Chinatown Heritage Centre and an exhibition on the origin of the Gold Buddha.


Characteristics

The statue is tall and weighs . (According to another account, the statue measures 3.91 meters from base to top, and 3.10 meters across the lap from knee to knee.) It can be disassembled into nine pieces. The statue was housed in a wat in Ayutthaya until the mid 19th century, and its provenance from Ayutthaya excludes the possibility of it having been made after about 1750. At US$2,700 per troy ounce, the gold in the statue (18 karat) is estimated to be worth 482 million dollars. The body of the statue is 40% pure, the volume from the chin to the forehead is 80% pure, and the hair and the topknot, weighing 45 kg, are 99% pure gold. The Buddha is represented in the traditional pose of '' Bhumisparsha Mudra'' (touching the earth with the right hand to bear witness Lord Buddha's
enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
at
Bodh Gaya Bodh Gayā is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple complex, situated in the Gaya district in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Bihar. It is famous for being the place where Gautam ...
and victory over Mara). The original statues of Sukhothai sit on a common pedestal form. The flame that crowns the ''
ushnisha The ushnisha (, Pali: ''uṇhīsa'') is a protuberance on top of the head of a Buddha. In Buddhist literature, it is sometimes said to represent the "crown" of a Buddha, a symbol of Enlightenment and status the King of the Dharma. Descripti ...
'' is an innovation of Sukhothai that symbolises the splendour of
spiritual energy Proponents and practitioners of various esoteric forms of spirituality and alternative medicine refer to a variety of claimed experiences and phenomena as being due to "energy" or "force" that defy measurement or experimentation, and thus are d ...
. The line of the hairdressing forms a "V" shape in the root of the hairs, underlined by the elegant curve of the eyebrows that join above the aquiline nose, all according to the prescribed rules. The three wrinkles in the neck and the much elongated ear lobes, signs of his former status of prince, also form part of the code, as do the wide shoulders and the chest inflated.


References


External links


fotopedia.com
Another photo of the Golden Buddha * Some more photos (before the move to the new building), and a history synopsis: {{Visitor attractions in Bangkok Buddha statues in Thailand Traimit Gold sculptures Samphanthawong district Thai art Tourist attractions in Bangkok