Thailand Guide
Southern Thailand: the Gulf coast
Wat Mahathat
Opening time: Viharn Kien Museum: daily 9am–5pm
Address: Thanon Ratchadamnoen, about 2km south of the town centre
Missing out Wat Mahathat would be like going to Rome and not visiting St Peter's, for the Buddha relics in the vast stupa make this the south's most important shrine. In the courtyard inside the temple cloisters, row upon row of smaller stupas, spiked like bayonets, surround the main stupa, the Phra Boromathat. This huge, stubby Sri Lankan bell supports a slender, ringed spire, which is in turn topped by a shiny pinnacle said to be covered in 600kg of gold leaf. According to the chronicles, relics of the Buddha were brought here from Sri Lanka two thousand years ago by an Indian prince and princess and enshrined in a stupa. These days, worshippers head for the north side's vast enclosed stairway, framed by lions and giants, which they liberally decorate with gold leaf to add to the shrine's radiance and gain some merit.
The Viharn Kien Museum, which extends north from the stupa, is an Aladdin's cave of bric-a-brac, said to house fifty thousand artefacts donated by worshippers, ranging from ships made out of seashells to gold and silver models of the Bodhi Tree. At the entrance to the museum, you'll pass the Phra Puay, an image of the Buddha giving a gesture of reassurance. Women pray to the image when they want to have children, and the lucky ones return to give thanks and to leave photos of their chubby progeny.
Outside the cloister to the south is the eighteenth-century Viharn Luang, raised on elegant slanting columns, a beautiful example of Ayutthayan architecture. The interior is austere at ground level, but the red coffered ceiling shines with carved and gilded stars and lotus blooms. In the spacious grounds on the assembly hall's south side, cheerful, inexpensive stalls peddle local handicrafts such as shadow puppets, bronze and basketware.