Wat Suthat Thepwararam Ratchaworamahawihan

This guide to Wat Suthat in Bangkok opens at the Giant Swing, the twenty-one-meter red teak frame where, for over a century, four Brahmin priests climbed onto a suspended plank each year and pumped themselves higher and higher, lunging at the peak of the arc for a bag of silver coins on a bamboo pole. It follows what the ritual meant, the Hindu myth of creation it re-enacted, and what eventually happened to the ceremony itself. From there it turns to the temple courtyard and the story behind the bronze Buddha enthroned in the main hall. Stand at the base of the swing's crimson pillars before you head inside.