Wat Muang
Temple Of One Of The World'S Largest Seated Buddha Images, About 92 M Tall · Wiset Chai Chan, Ang Thong
Wat Muang is a temple in Wiset Chai Chan district of Ang Thong, a small rice-growing province on the Chao Phraya plain north of Ayutthaya, and it is known across Thailand for its giant golden seated Buddha, one of the largest in the world, often given as about 92 metres tall. The image, in the posture of calling the earth to witness, rises over the flat paddy fields and can be seen from far away; it is commonly named Phra Buddha Maha Nawamin, and it was built over many years and completed in the 2000s. Around it the temple has a striking ordination hall covered in glittering glass mosaic and set in water, and a garden of statues depicting the Buddhist hells, where sinners are shown being punished in graphic, bloody detail - memorable but disturbing, and not for small children. Ang Thong has other giant Buddhas too, including an open-air reclining image at Wat Khun Inthapramun and the great seated Luang Pho To at Wat Chaiyo. Wat Muang is about an hour by car from Ayutthaya and an easy detour on a day in the central plain.
Hua Taphan, Wiset Chai Chan, Wiset Chai Chan, Ang Thong, 14110, Thailand
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the temple grounds, the giant Buddha and the statue gardens are open daily from about 7 or 8 am to about 5 or 6 pm, with no weekly closing day known; the ordination hall and other halls open at set times and may be locked outside ceremonies, and stalls keep shorter hours on weekdays. The traps that ruin a day are arriving at midday in the hot season with no hat or water, relying on buses that stop far from the temple, walking small children into the hell garden without looking first, fitting the temple in at dusk after a full Ayutthaya day, and driving rural roads during late rainy-season flooding. Confirm current times before relying on them.