Wat Pathum Wanaram Rachaworawihan
Buddhist temple founded in eighteen fifty-seven, tucked between Siam shopping malls, with lotus gardens and a fraught modern history.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Wat Pathum Wanaram in Bangkok centers on May 19, 2010, when soldiers took position on the elevated Skytrain tracks above a temple that had just been declared a sanctuary for protesters sheltering below. It follows the medics and volunteers who set up triage stations in the compound, and the accounts that later reached a criminal court about what happened that morning. It also reaches back to the temple's founding in 1857, when this land was still rice fields. Walk the lotus gardens and notice how deliberately quiet the compound feels today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Wat Ratchapradit Sathit Maha Simaram
Grey-marble royal monastery built by Rama IV in eighteen sixty-four, with ashes of the king beneath its Buddha image.
Wat Chana Songkhram Ratchaworamahawihan
Royal war-victory temple from the Rama I era, steps from Khaosan Road, with gilded chedis and Mon Buddhist history.
Wat Saket Ratchawora Mahawihan
Golden artificial hill topped with a sacred chedi, once Bangkok's plague cemetery and now its most iconic climb.
Wat Prayurawongsawas Worawihan
19th-century royal temple with an ancient artificial hill, turtle pond, and UNESCO-awarded white stupa.
Wat Mangkon Kamalawat (Wat Leng Noei Yi)
Bangkok's most revered Chinese Buddhist temple, blending Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian shrines since the eighteen seventies.
Wat Bowonniwetwiharn Ratchaworawiharn
Royal monastery where a prince-monk spent twenty-seven years and founded Thailand's Dhammayut Buddhist reform sect.