The Golden Buddha

On Lopburi's highest mountain

By Grant Cameron

March 17^th, 2019

Stunning, even in the haze

As we turned right off Thailand's Highway No. 1, and headed south west, down the rural road, the giant golden Buddha statue first started to materialise out of the early morning haze.

Our first thoughts . . . wow, it's absolutely massive!

It's LArge . . . very large!

We were driving in the direction of the temple, Wat Khao Wong Prachan. It's giant Buddha looked large from several kilometres away because it's height dominated over everything. But as we got nearer, the statue seemed to diminish in size as the perspective of the backdrop of the hills behind began to loom over it.

The statue is sited in front of what is considered to be the highest mountain of Lopburi province, the summit of which is 650 meters above sea level. To the left in the below image, you can see the stairway rising to the top of the mountain: 3,790 steps and almost 1.7kilometres long!

An idea of scale

The statue is over 72 metres high, from its base on the plinth (and excluding the height of the plinth) to the top of its crown. That's the equivalent of a 24 story skyscraper. But it is only from a distance that one can truly understand how immense this giant object is. Up close, the sense of size diminishes. Hopefully the below two images will convey the proper sense of scale.

Some aerial shots

Despite the haze, and a few occasional gusts of wind, I fired up the drone for some better views.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

As you can see, the statue complex is still under construction, having started, as far as I can gather, in the early 2000's. The statue structure was completed, but unpainted, in 2013.

It's tall, HIGH & what a VIEW!

Whether from the statue plinth, or the temple stairs behind on the mountain, the view is spectacular.

SOME LAST AERIAL Shots

VIEW FROM THE PLINTH

THUMB'S UP, LOOKING UP

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Time for some prayers.

GETTING THERE

The temple is about 180kms from downtown Bangkok, and you should allow about 2 and a half hours to get there. It's definitely a full day's trip, especially if combined with visits to Lopburi or Pasak Jolasid Dam. The map shows the position of the temple, but for the GPS coordinates I have given the location of the road entrance so that you will clearly know where to turn if coming from either direction.

Wat Khao Wong Prachan: 14.992216N, 100.661141E

My blog posts are generally in Thailand, but do explore, and hopefully be entertained by my recent visits to the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and an ancient temple at Jagat Shiromani, India.

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