But Wat Traimit, located in Chinatown, deserves a special mention because this temple houses a very unique SOLID GOLD colossal Buddha statue. We're talking about a blindingly shiny seated Buddha statue weighing over 5 tons!
This is how the temple looks like:
(the golden Buddha statue is at the very top)
On the way to the top (yes, devotees have to climb up stairs), there is also a museum which tells the amazing story of this golden Buddha statue:
It originated in Ayutthaya (Thailand's former capital), but was covered in plaster right before the Burmese army came and ransacked Ayutthaya. After Bangkok was declared the new capital, this statue was kept in a nondescript temple because people thought it wasn't worth much. However, in the 1950s, it fell and broke when it was being moved to another temple. The workers who were tasked with the moving job were horrified, thinking that it was a bad omen and ran away. However, the next day a Buddhist monk came to see the broken statue because he had a dream that it was actually a special statue. The monk then noticed that there was something yellow and shiny underneath the broken plaster - - - GOLD!
Obviously, then the Buddha statue was deserving a new (more special) temple, and now it is housed in this fabulous-looking temple.
The museum even has dioramas retelling the story:
And also original fragments of the statue's platform:
And the rope and pulley used to carry the statue (which broke):
And of course, pieces of the plaster covering the golden statue:
Believe it or not, this golden Buddha statue made it to the Guinness Book of Records as "the scared object with the highest intrinsic value" (37.1 million pounds in 2003):
Here are some pics of the inside of the temple (and the awe-inspiring golden Buddha statue):
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