Photo Gallery

Wat Phra Kaeo (15th century or earlier)

Wat Phra Kaeo is historically important as one of the sites where the Emerald Buddha, now in Bangkok, once resided. The Emerald Buddha is a statue of mysterious origin that first surfaced in northern Thailand in 1434 when a lightning bolt struck the chedi at Wat Phra Kaeo. The lightning bolt ripped apart the stucco coating of the chedi, revealing a green statue inside. Believing it to be made of emerald, the local population dubbed it the emerald Buddha, though it is actually composed of green jade. King Sam Fang Kaen of Lanna wanted the statue to be installed in the capital at Chiang Mai, but the elephant carrying it stubbornly turned instead, on three separate occasions, toward Lampang to the south. As there had already been a long tradition of heeding the whims of elephants as a sign of divine intent, King Sam Fang Kaen allowed the statue to be kept in Lampang, where it resided until 1468, whereupon it was brought to Chiang Mai by King Tilokaraj and installed in Wat Chedi Luang.

The statue was subsequently acquired by the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang in 1552, when it was taken to Luang Prabang by King Setthathirat. Sixteen years later, the king transferred the statue to Vientiane in Laos when his father, Photisarath, died.

The statue remained in Vientiane for over two centuries until 1779, when General Taksin (Chao Phraya Chakri) of Siam captured Vientiane. He adopted the statue as a palladium of the Chakri dynasty, which he founded in 1782 when he installed himself as King Rama I. The statue is now kept in Wat Phra Kaew, the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha, on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.