Phitsanulok Thailand Guide

If you see only one thing in the lower north, make it this. Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat — everyone calls it Wat Yai, the Big Temple — stands on the east bank of the Nan River in the heart of Phitsanulok, and inside its main viharn sits Phra Buddha Chinnarat, a 3.75-metre bronze Buddha cast in 1357 that Thais widely regard as the most beautiful Buddha image in the country. The Image Itself The Chinnarat sits in the subduing-Mara posture, framed by a flame-like aureole (rassami) that rises from the crown and curves around the whole upper body — a Sukhothai design so admired that copies stand in temples all over Thailand, including a famous replica at Wat Benchamabophit in Bangkok commissioned by King Chulalongkorn, who chose to copy the image rather than remove the original. Arrive at opening time and you will share the hall with monks, schoolchildren and grandmothers making morning merit; by mid-morning tour groups arrive, so early is genuinely better. More Than One Hall Give the ...