Wat Traimit made it in the Guinness Book of World records for housing the worlds' largest Gold Buddha image. It’s pure gold and weighs about 5.5 tons
What makes it even more interesting is the story behind it…..
The Golden Buddha is estimated to be from the 13-15th century, but no one really knows when or where it is from. In fact, they did not even know it was "golden" in until the 1950s because the gold was covered in plaster.
The Buddha image was being moved for storage when a piece of the plaster broke off and revealed GOLD!! They believe it was covered in plastic lacquer when the Burmese were invading Thailand in order to camouflage the value so that it wouldn’t be taken-smart!
The third level of this building houses a museum on the history of the Golden Buddha image and explains method of casting golden Buddha statues. The second floor is a Chinatown heritage center. Chinese have been a part of Thailand's history since the 1780s and overtime Chinatown has developed into an integral business and entertainment district. (Wat Traimit is in Chinatown).
