Visit Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen (Bangkok)

The vast Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen temple was created in 1610, during the Ayutthaya period, in a more modest version than its current form. It is a royal temple located in the Phasi Charoen district, on the banks of several Bangkok canals, including Khlong Phasi Charoen. The temple's full name is rarely used; Bangkokians more readily call it Wat Paknam. Paknam in Thai means riverfront or anything with water, in this case a canal. The temple became popular thanks to the meditation master Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro, who was its abbot throughout the first half of the 20th century. Best known to Thais, it has become a little more popular with foreign tourists since the construction in 2012 of an enormous stupa at the temple, named Maharatchamongkhon, thanks in particular to the superb vault on the top floor.

But it is its Giant Buddha that has truly made it known to the masses, with countless photos and videos taken during its construction and since. Construction began in 2017 on the large 64-meter-high Buddha statue in front of the stupa. The Big Buddha was completed in 2021. It is the tallest Buddha statue in Bangkok.

It has made Wat Pak Nam Phasi Charoen an increasingly popular stop on the agenda of things to do in Bangkok. But it's still quite a distance from the 95-meter mark of the tallest Buddha in Thailand. Many of the traditional longtail boat tours on the klongs (canals) pass through the canal that runs alongside the Big Buddha of Bangkok and sometimes stop there to visit the Buddhist temple.

Wat Paknam belongs to the Mahayana Nikaya fraternity, which is at the origin of the rather controversial Dhammakaya movement in Thailand.