Wat Pathum Wanaram

Wat Pathum Wanaram stands on Rama I Road in Pathum Wan district, squeezed between the Siam Paragon and CentralWorld shopping centres and across the road from Siam Square. Its walled grounds form a calm space in the busiest shopping area of Bangkok.

King Mongkut, Rama IV, founded the temple in 1857 as a place of worship near his Sa Pathum Palace. At the time the area was rice fields reached by the Saen Saep canal. The full name is Wat Pathum Wanaram Ratchaworawihan, and it is a third class royal temple of the Thammayut order.

The temple has an ordination hall and a chapel with Buddha images, a chedi, and gardens with ponds and old trees. One of its buildings, a sala, was partly rebuilt from the elaborate royal crematorium built for the Princess Mother, Princess Srinagarindra, a rare example of traditional craftsmanship with carved and lacquered decoration. The House of Mahidol Memorial inside the temple holds the ashes of royal family members in the line of Prince Mahidol Adulyadej.

In 2010 the temple was declared a safe zone during the clearance of anti-government protests in the area, and several people were killed in its grounds, an event remembered locally.

Entry is free. Visitors should dress modestly and keep noise down, as the temple is an active monastery with resident monks.

What is special about the sala? The sala built partly from the crematorium of Princess Srinagarindra, the Princess Mother, is in the phra men style, which represents Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Buddhist cosmology. The original crematorium was known for its ornate stencilled panels and lacquered sculpture, and the reused parts are among the few surviving pieces of royal funeral architecture open to view in central Bangkok.

The House of Mahidol Memorial holds the ashes of royal family members in the line of Queen Savang Vadhana and Prince Mahidol Adulyadej, the father of King Bhumibol. The ordination hall faces a garden of ponds and lotus plants, which recall the lotus swamps that gave Pathum Wan, meaning lotus forest, its name.

The 2010 events. During the military clearance of the Red Shirt protest camp around Ratchaprasong in May 2010, the temple served as a declared safe zone where the injured received first aid. On 19 May 2010, six people inside the grounds were killed by gunfire from outside.

The skywalk between Siam and Chit Lom BTS stations runs past the temple gate, and the grounds are a quiet place to sit between shopping trips. Visit in the morning, when monks are active and the grounds are cool.