Wat Traimit (Temple of the Golden Buddha)

Wat Traimit's headline object is a 3-metre, 5.5-tonne Buddha cast from solid gold in the Sukhothai style, probably in the 13th or 14th century. During a period of Burmese invasions, monks disguised it under a thick coat of plaster and coloured glass; the trick was so effective that the disguise lasted through the fall of Ayutthaya and the founding of Bangkok. In 1955 workers moving the image dropped it, cracked the stucco, and revealed the gold beneath. It has sat on a marble pedestal on the temple's top floor ever since.

The building itself is modern — a four-storey white marble hall opened in 2010 that acts as showcase and museum. The ground floor holds the ticket booth and a Chinatown Heritage Center on the second floor with sepia photographs of old Yaowarat, opium dens, gold shops, funeral processions and Chinese opera. The third floor is a small exhibition on how the Buddha was cast and discovered. The image itself is on the top floor: shoes off, marble underfoot, and a curiously moving object in a temple that could easily have felt like a display case.

Wat Traimit sits at the western gateway of Chinatown, so combine it with a walk down Yaowarat Road, dinner at the night stalls around Texas Suki and dessert at a mango-sticky-rice cart on Charoen Krung. The MRT Blue Line extension puts Hua Lamphong five minutes away. Skip Mondays — the museum floors close even though the main hall sometimes opens for worshippers.

Hours & entry

Museum galleries free on Thai national holidays

Tue-Sun 8:00-17:00 · Closed Monday

What to see

• The Golden Buddha — Fourth floor viewing hall, main altar
• Chinatown Heritage Center — Second floor of the marble hall
• Discovery exhibit — Third floor gallery with the original stucco fragment

Tips from the ground

• The temple entrance is free; only the museum floors and the top hall cost $3.
• Come at opening — Yaowarat gets suffocatingly hot by midday and the temple has patchy air-con.
• Combine with a lunch of dim sum at nearby Hong Kong Noodle on Charoen Krung.