World’s Largest gold Buddha - 5.5 tons of gold! - Wat Traimit Bangkok

All right, welcome guys. As you can see behind me, I'm standing right in front of the Chinatown Gate. Now I didn't come here specifically to look at it, it just was along my way, so I stopped to read a few of the data plates and learn a little bit more about the history of the Chinese as well as the history of Chinatown. But I came here to go over there, and I want to look at a five and a half tons worth of gold. So let me show you around at this temple and let's see what we see. So here is the Chinese Gate itself, and it is kind of the entrance to Chinatown. And they're getting stuff set up here, they're going to be doing a big Chinese New Year celebration. So they have some drums and they're building a stage. But I want to really go see that temple over there and you can see the spire. So let's go see. Okay, so if you're a Thai, you can come into this temple for free. If you're a foreigner, you have to pay 40 baht for a ticket. And then if you're wearing shorts or a woman, you can rent a scarf which is 20 baht. They do have an elevator in the bottom, but it's only for people that are handicapped. Everybody else has to go up to up the stairs, which is no problem. And they have the elevator right at the bottom. So the elderly or the handicapped, whatever, can take the elevator up. So as I understand it, this building here is fairly new. It was built in 2008. But what it houses is much, much older. We're going to go see what it looks like for five and a half tons of gold or about 38 million dollars worth. The front of the temple, it's really nice. It has the base, it's the granite, and then they have all this here is marble. It is hot, but these steps are no problem to climb. I read online about some people complaining about the climb, but this is nothing compared to most temples you go to. So right at the very top platform, there's the elevator. And then they actually have a handicap ramp that's right here. So this is one of the few places in Thailand that I've seen that is 100% handicap accessible. So we're going to go in there. And up here you have some nice little views. You're three stories up or so. So you can kind of see some of the Chinatown area and look off into the city towards the Silom area over here. And it's all Bangkok all around. And over there is the Baiyot 2 Tower and then some more of the temple grounds. We'll go and explore those later on. Let's see what's in that building. You got a nice platform up here. So anybody that comes that wants to do the three laps around, that's a nice wide walk. And all of this way is Chinatown. You can see some of the lanterns and all that and all the temple grounds. It's just jammed right here in the middle. You have some government buildings and schools and stuff around. Okay, so like I said before, the name of this temple is Wat Trai Mit and it's here in Chinatown. And it's famous for this gigantic Golden Buddha image. Now the temple was officially named Wat Trai Mit, Wat Tai Yam, and it's also known as the Temple of the Golden Buddha. And this massive gold Buddha is what everybody comes here for. And it's the name of the Buddha itself is Praha Putamaha Suwan Pattamangkon or something like that. And it's displaying the subduing Mara Madra. That's the pose it's in. And it is the largest Golden Buddha image in the world. Now it's got kind of an interesting history to it. It's about 700 or 800 years old. Nobody really knows how old it is. Now the Gold Buddha itself, they say it's from around Sukhothai because of the the style of the face. And Sukhothai was the kingdom in the north before Ayutthaya. And it was the capital from around 1230 or so to like 1430. And then they relocated the capital to Ayutthaya. Now the golden image was moved to Ayutthaya sometime in that period. Nobody really knows when. But the Burmese came in and they sacked Ayutthaya in like 1760s. And they looted everything that they could. And before this, you know, before the Burmese found this, somebody came and covered this in plaster. So they kind of hid the fact that this was solid gold, you know, for obvious reasons. And so anyway, after the Burmese were finally driven out, King Rama I established the new capital, not in Ayutthaya, but over here in Bangkok. And so he ordered like thousands of Buddha images to be brought into the new kingdom. And so they moved this image into Bangkok. And so anyway, it was originally at Wat Chata Ranam. And that was in like the 30s. And then in 1955, they built a new, like a new Ram for this image. And the story goes is that the workers were using a crane and they were raising it into position. And one of the cables snapped and the Buddha image fell down into the mud and the workers ran away fearing bad luck. And the next day, one of the monks came in and saw, you know, the Buddha image down, you know, laying in the mud, but the plaster was broken and he could see the gold underneath. And so they obviously at this point knew how valuable this was, you know, this really was. So, you know, since then they built this three-story building and that was built in 2008 where the Buddha image currently resides. So it's quite amazing that this is still here and it's still in one tact and it weighs roughly five and a half tons and a US dollar value of about $38 million or so. Okay, so right below the golden Buddha on the first floor is the museum, but it's locked up today. So we can't go in there and see, which they supposedly have the cover of the plaster that was covering this golden Buddha. It's supposed to be on display there, but we can't see anything today, which is a disappointment. Okay, so let's go check out the little part of the temple down below. They have the Nagas and some of the Buddhas. I'm gonna take off your shoes before you come in. Let's see what this one looks like. Now, after seeing the whole golden Buddha, this one will pale in comparison. I think they're fixing some lights and stuff. Yeah, it's still nice. It's nice enough. And the hall is fairly simple, but the Buddha itself is nice. And then some more of the Buddhas on the temple ground. We got a little cat. I don't know if the cat is Buddhist, but it's here anyway. Chinese Buddha. All right, guys, so that finishes up our little quick tour of the golden Buddha temple. That was pretty spectacular. The golden Buddha itself is amazing. It was worth 40 baht to go. So anyway, if you liked it, make sure you click like. This takes a second. Smash that little like button thing. And if you're not subscribed already, subscribe and share with your friends. And if you want to leave me a comment, leave me a comment down below and I will answer it. If you want to see something different, let me know also, and I'll go try my best to do a video. And remember, guys, as always, life is a journey. So enjoy. Get a clean, clean, clean little temple cat. The friendliest little cat I've seen in a long time.