Temple of the Reclining Buddha

Wat Pho, Temple of the Reclining Buddha

Wat Pho is a much-visited temple, located near Bangkok’s Grand Palace (separate post, last year). Most people know it as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, but it’s also renowned as a center for teaching and practicing traditional Thai healing, including Thai massage.  In the pictures below we are just inside the gate. I never can resist taking photos of these Chinese guard statues. The ones here have quite a range of personalities. The two on either side of the gate seem somewhat welcoming of visitors.

The next two are very different – one fierce and threatening, one with a friendly, even avuncular face.

I wonder if the unknown artisans who created these guys had instructions for how to make the faces, or whether they used their imagination?  I choose to believe they were like the workers who made gargoyles for cathedrals in medieval Europe, taking the opportunity to put their own creative stamp on the project.

The individualized faces of the Chinese guards are a contrast to the faces of Buddha figures, which look almost identical all over Thailand. With the Buddha figures, any differences from one to the other tend to be very small, because the meanings ascribed to the Buddha's serene gaze and his posture need to be the same everywhere.

The Reclining Buddha is huge: 15 m high x 43 m long, and covered in gold leaf. The figure is so large, and so protected by pillars in the narrow building, that it’s impossible to view it all at once. It’s also difficult to take good pictures without standing on a ladder or something – but I did what I could. In the two photos below, you see the Buddha’s head and his face.

My comments about how alike Buddha figures are all over Thailand notwithstanding, I find the serene expression on this Buddha's face to be very beautifully executed. Can you tell there is mother-of-pearl inlaid around the eyes? I didn’t notice the little, er, excrescences on his bicep when taking the picture; I think they must be squares of gold foil that you can buy at every temple and put on a statue after lighting a candle and joss stick.

I couldn’t get a photo of the torso, but here are the Buddha’s feet.

Part of the sole of the bottom foot, and half that amount of the upper sole

The feet strike me as pretty clunky by comparison with the beauty of the face and head; however, the artists made good use of the soles of the feet: They are engraved with mother-of-pearl and inscribed with 108 symbols – animals and flowers as well as abstract symbols. The images represent the 108 auspicious characteristics of the True Buddha.

Finally, here is a picture of the back of the Buddha’s head, reclining on two pillows.

The head has the characteristic tight curls of Thai Buddha figures. The pillows look uncomfortable (well, duh, they’re made of plaster covered with gold leaf), but rectangular pillows of that shape, that keep your head at an angle, up off the bed or floor, are common in Thai households. (Not made of plaster.)  (You knew that.)

Of course, like all Thai temples, this one needs money. When you enter, you can buy a sack of coins that you then drop into the 108 bowls lined up against the outer wall behind the Buddha figure.

Filling little pots with money

Emptying litlte pots of money

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After the coins have been collected, they are sold again to the next visitors – the coins are not the donation, they are the 108 offerings you make for good luck.

And when you’ve finished touring the temple and grounds, you can get a massage if you like – the cost is reasonable, about 250 baht for a one-hour session, only slightly higher than at walk-in Thai massage shops everywhere in Bangkok.