Longest Reclining Buddha

Many guidebooks say that the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok is the longest in Thailand. Even though it is 46 metres long, it isn’t the longest. Others claim that the Reclining Buddha at Wat Khun Inthra Pramun in Ang Thong is the longest at 50 metres. They are also wrong. I can understand why they are mistaken. I have visited both of these temples and these Buddha images are gigantic.

The longest Reclining Buddha in Thailand is in fact here in my home province of Samut Prakan at Wat Bang Phli Yai Klang! Not many people know that. In fact, probably not many people have seen it. I took my visitors there today and they were completely bowled over by its size. It is not only 53 metres long, but it is also as tall as a four storey building! On top of that, you can also go inside. Pretty amazing. But, I think the neatest thing was the shrine for the Buddha’s heart. I have heard about this kind of thing before. Sometimes they put a heart through a hole in the back of a Buddha image and then fill it in with cement. But, this one was huge and also had veins!

I suppose my only disappointment was that you couldn’t take a picture like the one at the top which I had to scan. It looks like when the Reclining Buddha was originally built, there was no building surrounding it. Now they have built a temple around it which makes it difficult to take a picture of the whole image – as you can tell from my photo above. But, nevertheless, it is still impressive.