Wat Suthat Thepwararam Ratchaworamahawihan

What to look for

The Giant Swing

Sao Ching Cha, the 21-meter red teak frame across the road from the gate, built in 1784.

The wihan

Phra Si Sakyamuni, an 8 m bronze Buddha cast in Sukhothai in the 14th century, with murals around it and doors carved by King Rama II (the originals are in the National Museum).

The cloisters

Rows of seated Buddha images around the wihan, and Chinese stone figures in the courtyards that came over as ballast on rice ships.

The ubosot

The ordination hall, with a Buddha image from Rama III's reign and murals by his court painters.

The Giant Swing gets the photographs, but the reason to walk through the gates is what's behind it. Wat Suthat is one of Bangkok's ten first-class royal temples, begun by Rama I in 1807 and finished under Rama III in 1847, and its wihan holds Phra Si Sakyamuni, an 8-meter bronze Buddha cast in Sukhothai in the 14th century and brought to the new capital by boat. The walls around it are painted floor to ceiling, and the wihan's great carved doors are the work of King Rama II himself, with the originals now in the National Museum.

What surprises people is how quiet it stays. It's right in the middle of the old city and yet the cloisters are wide, shaded and unhurried, lined with rows of seated Buddha images. Look out for the Chinese stone figures in the courtyards, which arrived as ballast on rice ships in the early Bangkok era, and the 28 small Chinese pagodas around the main hall. Thai visitors come through the week to pray, so you're sharing it with worshippers more than tour groups. Weekday afternoons are the calmest.

Entry is ฿100 for foreign visitors and free for Thais. It opens at 08:30 and stays open into the evening, with Google giving 20:00 as closing and some guides later, so it works at the end of a temple day. Cover your shoulders and knees and take your shoes off in the halls.

MRT Sam Yot is about ten minutes' walk along Bamrung Mueang Road, where the shops sell monks' supplies and Buddha images, and the Grand Palace is about 1 km west. The Giant Swing stands across the road out front, so you see both at once.