Audio guide
An audioguide to a first class royal temple in the old heart of Bangkok
Quick answer
This Mappu audio guide for Wat Ratchabophit Sathit Maha Simaram Ratchaworawihan highlights Welcome to Wat Ratchabophit Sathit Maha Simaram Ratchaworawihan, A King, a Prince, and a Patch of Land, and The Name with a Boundary Inside It, giving travelers a concise overview before exploring Bangkok.
Welcome to Wat Ratchabophit Sathit Maha Simaram Ratchaworawihan. It is a mouthful, I know, but every piece of that name is doing real work, and by the end of this walk you will hear it differently. You are standing in the old royal quarter of Bangkok, in Phra Nakhon district, in the Wat Ratchabophit neighbourhood, on Fueang Nakhon Road, a short stroll from the Grand Palace. This is a royal temple of the first class, of the kind Thai sources call Ratchaworawihan, and it was built in the reign of King Chulalongkorn, Rama the Fifth. Thai records describe it as a temple of the reign, meaning a temple bound to the monarch who made it. But the bond runs deeper than one king. The sources say this temple is the reign temple of three Chakri monarchs, and that the royal ashes of Rama the Seventh and Rama the Ninth rest here alongside the memory of Rama the Fifth. One honest note before we begin. This temple's story is well documented in Thai, but the accounts do not agree on every detail, and even the exact years of construction are given differently in different places. So where something is genuinely uncertain, I will tell you rather than guess. Ready? Let us begin with a king, a prince, and a piece of land.
Before there was a temple here, there was a palace. Thai sources record that this land belonged to a son of King Rama the Third, a prince named Singara who held the title Krom Luang Bodinthorn Phaisan Sophon, and that part of it was owned by ordinary residents living nearby. King Chulalongkorn did not simply take it. Thai accounts say he bought the prince's land, and then the land of those residents, and set about making something new on the spot. The sources date the royal command to build the temple to 1869, early in his reign. A prince named Pradit Worakan was appointed to direct the work, and the site covered more than ten rai, a generous footprint in an already crowded capital. Think for a moment about what that decision meant. A young king, newly on the throne, spending royal money on a temple rather than on himself. And the investment kept growing. This became the temple of his reign, and later monarchs bound themselves to it too. Thai accounts say the royal ashes of King Prajadhipok, Rama the Seventh, were placed here, and later those of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama the Ninth. What began as one man's foundation became a place where a dynasty keeps its dead, and keeps its memory as well.
Now, that long name. Wat Ratchabophit Sathit Maha Simaram. The key word is sima, the boundary that defines a sacred space, the line inside which monks may be ordained and the monastic community may perform its formal acts. Most temples mark that boundary with modest stones. This one went much further. Thai sources describe a maha sima, a great boundary, made of stone pillars set into the temple wall at eight points around the compass, each pillar carved with a dharma wheel, the wheel of the teaching. That is why the name says Sathit Maha Simaram: the great boundary abides here. Walk along the wall and look for those pillars. You are looking at the legal and spiritual edge of the sacred ground, dressed up as sculpture. There is a lovely piece of royal family history wrapped around this. King Rama the Fourth built Wat Ratchapradit, and its great boundary was consecrated in 1865. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab later explained that when Wat Ratchabophit was built, it followed Wat Ratchapradit in almost everything, right down to making a great boundary and giving itself a strikingly similar name. A son echoing his father's temple. So when you say this name out loud, you are also hearing an act of imitation and affection.
Now look up. The architecture here is a conversation between worlds. Thai sources describe a temple that blends Thai art with European forms, and visitors very often notice the same thing: a Thai temple with European touches built into it. This is not pastiche for its own sake. It is the taste of a modernising court in the late nineteenth century, and you are standing inside that taste. The centrepiece is the principal chedi, a bell shaped stupa. Thai records say it follows the bell shaped form favoured in King Rama the Fourth's reign, itself modelled on the principal chedi of Wat Phra Si Sanphet in Ayutthaya. So in the middle of Bangkok you have a shape that reaches straight back to the old capital. Then there is the Royal Cemetery, the Susan Luang, which King Rama the Fifth created to remember people he loved, filled with monuments such as the Sunantha memorial and Rangsi Watthana. Nearby stands a small pavilion in western style, the Vihara Noi, holding the ashes of Chao Khun Phra Prayurawong, also known as Chao Khun Chom Manda Pae, and of her sister Chao Chom Manda Mot, together with members of the Abhakara and Suriyong families. And in the Buddha image called Phra Phuttha Prathip Warothai, commissioned by Khunying Prathiap Chonlasap and dedicated to her parents, one woman's gift still holds its place. A temple built by a king quietly became a place where many kinds of love are stored.
Before you move on, let me leave you with a few things to look for, and one question to carry with you. Start with the wall. Walk it slowly and hunt for the eight pillars, each one carved with its wheel. It is easy to pass them without noticing, because they were never meant to shout. Then turn to the chedi, and trace that bell shape with your eyes, remembering that it is a quotation from Ayutthaya, repeated here as royal taste. And then wander into the memorial ground. Those monuments are not tombs in the ordinary sense. They are the fruit of one man's decision to keep the people he loved close to the place where merit is made every morning. That is the real theme of this temple: memory turned into architecture, stone by stone. So here is the question to take with you. If a temple can belong to a reign, tied to a king the way a song is tied to a year, what does it mean that three kings are bound to this one? Ask it while you are standing here, because this place looks different depending on how you answer. And do come back. The light on these surfaces changes through the day, and the temple will have something new to show you.
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It covers A King, a Prince, and a Patch of Land, The Name with a Boundary Inside It, and Thai Bones, European Clothes, and a Cemetery of Love, with practical context and details to notice during the visit.
Before there was a temple here, there was a palace. Thai sources record that this land belonged to a son of King Rama the Third, a prince named Singara who held the title Krom Luang Bodinthorn Phaisan Sophon, and that part of it was owned by ordinary residents living nearby. King Chulalongkorn did not simply take it. Thai accounts say he bought the prince's land, and then the land of those residents, and set about making something new on the spot.
You can continue with follow-up questions such as "The land beneath this temple once belonged to a prince of King Rama the Third's reign. Who was he, and how did the site pass to King Chulalongkorn?", then keep the guide connected to your map and trip plan.
