a field trip to Ayutthaya: Wat Mongkhon Bophit

After exiting Wat Phra Si Sanpeth, I realised that this cultural field trip organised by the FFTC and the KU seminar team was exposing us to a snippet of the religious culture of Thailand, specifically of Ayutthaya. That's because right after seeing the ruins, we were in front of a temple that has been active since the 1600s.

It's called Wat Mongkohn Bophit and I couldn't believe that it has been in operation for more than 400 years because it looks well maintained! I was expecting it to be in ruins because it must have been established in close proximity to Wat Phra Si Sanpeth during the Burmese invasion.

Reading up on the history of the temple, I learned that, indeed, it was razed to the ground during the Burmese invasion. The Buddha image known as Mongkhon Bophit was last restored in the 1950s and was covered in gold leaf in the 1990s.

I was astounded at how big the statue is! I'm used to seeing Christian saints depicted (mostly) by four-foot statues during Good Friday processions. Phra Mongkhon Bophit dwarfed them all by being 17 metres tall. Plus, the gold leaf cover has a lent it grandeur that is lacking in the more humble of Christian saint statues.

People were praying inside, offering incense sticks and flowers to the Buddha. Hence, I tried to be as quiet as possible as I looked around the temple. As I walked around, I noticed that there were smaller statues on either side of the giant statue. These smaller ones were covered with cloth.

On some, flowers were accompanied by money offerings. It was, frankly, quite a different experience being in this Buddhist temple. 

I was looking forward to see the last of our Ayutthaya temple stops... and perhaps to catch a glimpse of elephants walking down the road. After all, that's on my bucket list for Thailand. And I've been in the country three times; failing to cross this item out during the first two trips.