Question #13

What else is displayed?

-The 2 sets of gold clothing not in use at any given time are kept on display in the nearby Pavilion of Regalia -Royal Decorations and Thai Coins on the grounds of the Grand Palace where the public may view them.

What do the 3 sets of gold garments correspond to?

3 sets of gold garments correspond to Thailand's summer season, rainy season, and cool season.

The King changes the cloak around the statue three times a year, what is the significance?

Corresponding to the summer, winter, and rainy seasons, an important ritual performed to usher good fortune to the country during each season.

How is the Buddha carved?

It is carved in the meditating posture in the style of the Lanna school of the northern Thailand.

After he became King Rama I of Thailand, he moved the Emerald Buddha with great ceremony to its current home in Wat Phra Kaewon March 22, 1784. Where is the Emerald Buddha kept now?

It is now kept in the main building of the temple, the Ubosoth. This Wat is regarded as the most sacred Buddhist Temple in Thailand.

Emerald Buddha was thought to bring prosperity and pre-eminence to each country in which it resides, what is its importance to Buddhists in Thailand?

The Emerald Buddha deified in the Wat Phra Kaew is deeply revered and venerated in Thailand as the protector of the country.

What is the Emerald Buddha?

The Emerald Buddha itself is simply the Jadeite statue, but it is adorned with garments made of gold.

No other person is allowed to touch the statue except for?

The King

Where and how has it been enshrined?

While legend traces this statue to India, its rich historical records dates its finding in Cambodia in the 15th century, moved to Laos in the 16th century and then to Vientiane where it remained for 215 years, and finally to Thailand in the 18th century.