Thai Art and Culture
The Temple of Emerald Buddha (Wat Prakaew)
I am not sure whether which name is more recognized by foreign tourists as both name seem to be equally used when tour guides introduce the temple to the tourists. In fact the name “The temple of emerald Buddha” is an easy-to-call name only for tourists to understand quickly. This because the name Wat Prakaew is the name for Thai to call the temple in short, but the meaning is difficult to understand. In fact, the full formal name of the tample is quite long and hard to remember, Wat Prasriratana Sasdaram, which will be called only in formal way.
As we all know that (maybe not all of us but at least everyone who has visited the temple) the temple is a royal temple and located in the same compound of the grand palace.
Introduction of the royal temple
The royal temple or the temple of emerald Buddha was built in 1778, a bit earlier than the grand palace was built in 1782. The objective of building the temple is not only for royal family to make religious activities, but also in order to house the emerald Buddha, which brought by the King Rama the first after his victory over Vientiane and took back the Buddha image. The Buddha image, according to the written historical evidence, is more than 3,000 years old. After the king could defeat the city of Vientiane, he took the image to the temple.
The importance of the Buddha image
The Buddha image is recognized as the most important in the country. This is not because located in the royal temple but due to the supreme respect that Thai people. The unique characteristic of the image is that was made from the emerald and has his own seasonal outfit. In fact, during the reign of King Rama I, there were only two seasonal outfit which are for summer and rainy seasons, but later the outfit for winter season was added by the King Rama III.
As there are three seasons in Thailand; winter, summer and rainy season. The image’s outfit will be changed every time the season change and only the king or member of royal family is only the person who changes the outfit. This tradition has begun since the reign of King Rama I. Many of tourists who visited the temple, I believe that they had a great time of seeing plenty of magnificent building such as the royal chapel, the golden pagoda and the longest mural painting, which representing the Ramayana story.
The royal temple is very well known not only for foreign tourists but also very important to Thais. Thai people has highly respect to the temple and the emerald Buddha image. There are many important religious activities that the royal family perform within the temple and there are always thousands of Thais participate in the event.
If you have a chance to visit the temple, there are so many interesting sites to visit, the tour guide will take you through the history and explain how they relate to Thai customs.
