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Somewhere north of Bangkok . .

By Grant Cameron

November 27^th, 2017

Thailand's largest statue

About an hour and a half north of Bangkok stands Thailand's largest statue, Phra Buddha Maha Nawamin, also known as the Great Buddha of Thailand.

Yet another Sunday morning saw myself and a buddy get up hours before sunrise to go in search of a new location to shoot the dawn of a new day in Thailand.

Recently we visited the province of Ang Thong, where this statue is located in Wat Mueang temple, about 8 kilometres outside town.

The image will give you an idea of the tremendous scale of the statue. It is enormous.

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Sunrise

Of course, we had set out to "capture" sunrise, and as we positioned ourselves at the edge of a single track road, facing south east towards where we expected the sun to rise, and with cameras perched on tripods and the composition already set, we heard a lot of noise behind us.

It was a small herd of cattle being driven along the road, almost pushing us into the rice paddy in front of us as they passed by. Quickly grabbing the camera from the tripod I was able to snap the moment, as well as the friendly drover who was encouraging them on their way from behind.

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After the commotion . .

. . of the cattle passing by, we were able to re-focus our attention on the sunrise.

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First view

Our first view of the Buddha as we entered the temple complex itself is below, and it was a stunning sight. The Buddha towered over everything else: trees and temple buildings.

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heaven and hell

After this initial sight, and as we walked though the temple complex to get closer to the Buddha, we passed by numerous life-size figures which were depicting scenes from both the Thai-Burmese battle in Wiset Chai Chan, and Buddhist "heaven and hell".

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This massive diorama is quite extensive, colourful and sometimes graphical with scenes of torture played out almost everywhere you look. It is a pity there are no signs of explanation in English for the visitor to better understand what the scenes depict.

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In all its glory . .

. . height and splendour, I'm hoping the below image takes your breath away and encourages you to visit for yourself.

Some facts on the statue: it stands 84 metres tall atop an 8 metre pedestal, thus it is 92 metres high - twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty (excluding both their pedestals).

It is the world's eighth tallest statue, the tallest being the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China. Construction took 18 years and the statue was completed in 2008, having commenced in 1990. It is made of concrete, with an internal steel structure, and painted gold.

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SCALE

Frankly, while the height of the statue is truly immense, one doesn't get a real idea of the scale of it until a human form is nearby.

Below, a girl reaches up from a raised plinth to touch the tip of the Buddha's middle finger as her friend snaps a photo.

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From the air

The below images and video will help give a better idea of the scale of the statue.

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This video was taken from an earlier visit at roughly the same time of year.

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As we have nearly reached the end of our visit we are back on the ground for a final image.

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Getting There

Leave Bangkok heading north past Don Mueang Airport and follow Highway 32 to Ang Thong, switching to Highway 3195 heading west for about 8kms, and the temple is on your left.

GPS coordinates: 14.5942566N, 100.3813076E

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Footnotes

Thanks for visiting. Do come back.

FootNotes

Thanks for visiting. Do come back.

© 2026 Grant Cameron

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An Instagram worthy visit.

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An early morning walk continued.

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An early morning walk

The Nuclear Wat?

Like a nuclear reactor, or a UFO, this is a different temple.

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