---
node: spot_bangkok_wat_pho
type: spot
slug: wat_pho
destination: dest_bangkok
title: "Wat Pho"
lead: "Wat Pho holds a reclining Buddha 46 metres long and 15 metres high, gilded and with mother-of-pearl soles showing the 108 auspicious signs. The temple is also the birthplace of Thai massage and still teaches it."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_bangkok_wat_pho.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:02-%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A1.jpg"
image_author: "BerryJ"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

Rama III rebuilt the temple in the 1830s as a public university, covering its walls with inscribed panels on medicine, history, literature and astrology — a curriculum in stone for people who could not attend a school, now on the UNESCO Memory of the World register. The massage school in the grounds trains practitioners to a national standard and takes walk-ins. There are 1,000 Buddha images here, more than any other temple in Thailand.

## Highlights

Walk the length of the reclining Buddha's back and drop coins in the 108 bowls along the wall; the sound is the point. An hour's massage at the school costs less than a taxi across town and is done by students under supervision. Wat Pho adjoins the Grand Palace, so the two are one morning — do Wat Pho second, when the palace crowd has arrived.