Wat Saket (The Golden Mount), Bangkok
Wat Saket or Temple of the Golden Mount in Bangkok viewed from the mountain. Photo: Gerold Kogler.
Wat Saket Ratcha Wora Maha Wihan is a Buddhist temple (Wat) in Pom Prap Sattru Phai district, Bangkok, Thailand. Wat Saket sits on top of the Golden Mount which is an artificial hill.
Wat Saket was built outside of the former city walls in the late 18th-century in the reign of King Rama I. It served as the capital’s crematorium, and throughout the next century became the dumping ground of over 60,000 plague victims who were too poor to afford a funeral. Wat Saket’s major feature is the Golden Mount, an artificial hill dating from the early 19th-century. A huge chedi was built on top of the hill in the reign of King Rama III, but it collapsed during the construction process as the soil was too soft to support it. King Rama V bricked in the debris and started construction on a more modest chedi that still exists today.
-Thailand News (TN)
