
Mueang Phetchaburi, Phetchaburi
Wat Phra Phuttha Saiyat
วัดพระพุทธไสยาสน์ · Also known as: Wat Phra Non
- Period
- Ayutthaya period (presumed)
- Highlights
- Reclining Buddha
Wat Phra Phuttha Saiyat is a Mahanikai community temple thought to date from the Ayutthaya period; the Department of Religious Affairs gives its founding year as 1657.
Its reclining Buddha, about 43 m long, was originally built in the open. The temple lay abandoned until King Mongkut (Rama IV) saw the decayed image and had a corrugated-iron roof put over it; under King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) a tiled roof was built, creating today's reclining-Buddha vihara.
The image lies on its right side with its head to the west, resting on two lotus-shaped pillows, and is the fourth-largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. Restoration in 1997 revealed a tunnel inside it holding many artefacts, mostly late-Ayutthaya Buddha images.
Sources
Summarised from the Thai Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0); location from OpenStreetMap / Wikidata.