Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen: The Big Buddha and the Emerald Stupa

Two Things Worth the Trip

Wat Paknam sits in Phasi Charoen on the Thonburi side, well away from the Old Town temple circuit, and it holds two things you will not see elsewhere in Bangkok.

The first is Phra Buddha Dhammakaya Thep Mongkhon, a seated bronze Buddha standing 69 metres tall. It is the largest in the city and visible from a long way across the low Thonburi rooftops. Completed recently by the standards of Thai temple building, it has become the image that pulls visitors out here.

The second is inside the white pagoda, and it is the better of the two.

The Emerald Stupa

Climb to the top floor of the pagoda and you reach a room with a green glass stupa roughly eight metres high standing at the centre, lit from within.

Above it, the domed ceiling is painted with deep blue and violet galaxies, lotus motifs and swirling cosmic patterns. The effect is not what anyone expects from a Thai temple ceiling, and it has made this one of the most photographed interiors in Bangkok.

Most visitors never see it. The pagoda has several floors of museum displays below, and people work through two or three, assume that is the attraction, and leave. Keep going up. The stupa is on the top floor.

Photography is permitted and everyone does it, so expect to wait for a clear moment. Going early is the only way to have the room quiet.

Our round-up of Bangkok temples for photography puts it alongside the other interiors worth carrying a camera to.

Timing

Open daily 08:00 to 18:00. Entry is free.

Go in the morning. Two reasons: the room at the top of the pagoda fills from late morning onward, and the Thonburi journey is more comfortable before the heat sets in.

Allow about ninety minutes for the grounds, the pagoda and the Big Buddha together. People routinely allocate forty-five and regret it.

Getting There

This is the part that puts people off, and it is easier than it looks.

By metro: MRT Bang Phai is the closest station, followed by a short taxi or motorbike ride. The Blue Line extension made this considerably simpler than it used to be.

By boat: the more interesting option. Long-tail canal tours from the Thonburi khlongs include Wat Paknam, and arriving from the water is a better introduction than arriving by road. Our page on the Bangkok canals hop-on hop-off boat tour covers one route that stops here, and the Wat Paknam long-tail canal tour on Klook is the guided version.

Driving from Sukhumvit in traffic is the slow way. Our getting around Bangkok guide explains when the river and metro beat a taxi.

What Else Is Here

The complex is a working temple and a monastic school, not a visitor attraction, and it feels like it. Monks move through the grounds, local people come to make merit, and there is none of the commercial edge you find around the Old Town sites.

There is a museum in the lower pagoda floors covering the temple's history and the meditation tradition associated with it. It is genuinely interesting if you have the time, and skippable if you do not.

Dress Code

Shoulders and knees covered. This is a functioning temple with a resident monastic community and the expectation is the same as anywhere else in Thailand, even though nobody is checking tickets at a gate.

Shoes come off before entering the halls. Our temple dress guide has the detail.

Worth It?

If you like temples, this is the best free hour and a half in Bangkok. The ceiling alone justifies the journey.

If you have one day in the city and have not yet seen the Grand Palace or Wat Arun, do those first. Wat Paknam is the reward for a second or third visit, or for a traveler who wants the Thonburi side rather than the postcard circuit.