Golden Buddha (Wat Trai Mit)

The Phra Maha Mondop, floor by floor

Ground floor

Parking. The temple courtyard around the hall is free to walk.

2nd floor · Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center

The story of Bangkok's Chinese community and Yaowarat Road. Part of the exhibition ticket, closed on Mondays.

3rd floor · Golden Buddha exhibition

How the statue was made, hidden under plaster and found again in 1955. Same ticket, also closed on Mondays.

4th floor · Phra Phuttha Maha Suwanna Patimakon

The Golden Buddha itself, 5.5 tonnes and about 3 m tall, in the top-floor shrine. Its own ticket, open daily.

Go for the Buddha, and read its story before you climb up to it. Phra Phuttha Maha Suwanna Patimakon is a seated Sukhothai-style Buddha about 3 meters tall and five and a half tonnes of gold, and for about two centuries nobody knew. It was covered in plaster and colored glass, probably to hide it before Ayutthaya fell in 1767, and it sat unnoticed in Bangkok until a move in May 1955, when the ropes broke, it fell, and the plaster cracked to show the gold underneath. That's the difference between looking at a big gold statue and understanding why people cross the city for it.

Since 2010 it has sat on the fourth and top floor of the Phra Maha Mondop, the white and gold hall at the Odeon Circle end of Yaowarat Road. Two floors of exhibitions sit below it, the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center on the second and the story of the statue on the third. They're worth an hour if you like history and easy to skip if you're short on time. The building itself is modern and tidy, and it's an active place of worship, so keep your voice down and let people pray.

Recent visitors report ฿100 for the Buddha floor and another ฿100 for the exhibitions, and Thais go in free. Older guides still quote ฿40, which is out of date. It's open daily from 08:00 to 17:00, but the exhibitions close on Mondays, so come another day if you want both. There's an elevator as well as the stairs.

MRT Hua Lamphong is the closest station, about five minutes on foot from exit 1 along Mittraphap Thai-Chin Road, and the Chinatown gate is right outside. Cover your shoulders and knees and take your shoes off in the hall. Since it closes at 17:00, it works as the daytime half of a Chinatown visit, before the Yaowarat food stalls open in the evening.