Visiting Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat

About halfway to Chiang Mai from Bangkok in the city of Phitsanulok stands the beautiful wat (temple) Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, home to a large 14th-century bronze Buddha statue known as the Phra Buddha Chinnarat that's the second most revered statue in the country - second only to the Emerald Buddha, housed within the Grand Palace.

Throughout the year people travel enormous distances to pay their respects at this particular temple because of the miraculous powers the statue is reputed to have. They hold a week-long festival in its honor during the time of the sixth day of the waxing moon of the third month in the Thai lunar calendar. How's that for a mouthful? As we go along you'll undoubtedly notice there are a number of holidays and events important to the Thai that are based on points on the lunar calendar; you may remember another we covered recently: Loy Krathong.

The miracle granted the most significance happened back in the 15th century, when the image is said to have wept tears of blood when princes from Ayutthaya finally succeeded in running the troops from Sukhothai, but as we haven't even scratched the surface of Thai history I'm going to let you look that one up yourselves for now.

I have no guesses as to how many tens of thousands of visits are made to this particular temple in any given year, but people were moving through at a pretty steady clip the day I was there. After stopping to buy the usual offerings of candles, joss sticks and flowers they entered the temple to quietly pay their respects, as did I.

In the photo below you can see a small square of paper between the joss sticks. The folded paper holds the gold leaf, also used while making merit. There's another story about them from July you might be interested in: Putting Gold On The Back Of The Buddha.

On my way towards the temple I stopped near a group of students who were listening to the monk (above right) speaking. Some just listened, some were taking notes, all were paying close attention to what he said.

A man was playing music on a ranad eek (xylophone) outside the entrance to the temple, a soft melody that set the tone for my visit inside. Shaded from the sun it was cooler inside the temple, and I paused to kneel before the meticulously polished image towering in front of me to make my offering before wandering around the inside, admiring - as usual - the fine craftsmanship and detail.

If you're ever in the area - perhaps driving to another destination further North - I highly recommend stopping in and spending some time here.