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Bangkok, Bangkok · 13.7465°, 100.4933°
Bangkok's oldest and largest wat: the 46 m gold-leafed Reclining Buddha entering nirvana, feet inlaid with 108 mother-of-pearl auspicious signs. Rama III turned the cloisters into an open university — over a thousand inscriptions of medicine, massage and letters, now in UNESCO's Memory of the World — making Wat Pho the cradle of traditional Thai massage, still taught on site.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
Dropping 108 coins in the 108 bronze bowls along the great image's back, pilgrims count off the Buddha's virtues — merit made audible, coin by coin, down the length of the sleeping giant.
Wat Pho stands at 2 Sanam Chai Road in Phra Nakhon, old Bangkok, beside the Grand Palace. The MRT Blue Line serves it directly at Wat Pho station, exit 1, and city bus routes 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 25, 32, 44, 47, 48, 53 and 82 plus air-conditioned routes A1, A4, A12, A44, A48, 507 and 508 stop nearby. Arriving by river, get off at Tha Chang or Wat Arun pier and take the cross-river ferry to Tha Tien; paid parking is on Chetuphon Road.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-26 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Chakri (Rattanakosin)
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…