Qualla: Wat Saket

Wat Saket: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Vultures once circled this hill in such numbers that their presence entered the Thai language as a proverb. The phrase Raeng Wat Saket -- 'vultures of Wat Saket' -- became shorthand for death itself, a grim reference to the cholera epidemics of the 19th century when the temple's open grounds were overwhelmed with bodies the cremation facilities could not process. Today, the same hill draws visitors for entirely different reasons: candlelight processions, Loi Krathong celebrations, and panoramic views of Bangkok from the golden chedi at the summit. Few places in the city contain such extremes of memory within a single compound.

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Image: Gerd Eichmann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wat Saket: The King Who Washed His Hair

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit กสิณธร ราชโอรส, CC BY-SA 4.0. The temple dates to the Ayutthaya period, when it was known simply as Wat Sakae. Its transformation began when Bangkok became the capital and King Rama I renovated the compound and bestowed its present name -- Wat Saket, meaning 'to wash the hair.' According to tradition, the kin...

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Image: กสิณธร ราชโอรส | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wat Saket: The Mountain That Built Itself

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Satdeep Gill, CC BY-SA 4.0. Rama III had grand ambitions for the temple. He ordered the construction of a massive chedi inside the Wat Saket compound, but Bangkok's soft alluvial soil could not bear the weight. The structure collapsed during construction, and over the following decades the abandoned pile of...

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Image: Satdeep Gill | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wat Saket: The Ghost Gate

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BerryJ, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the early Rattanakosin period, the Siamese avoided cremations within the city walls, believing them to be inauspicious. Wat Saket, located outside the fortified area, became the city's primary cremation site. Corpses were carried through the Pratu Phi -- the 'ghost gate' -- to...

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Image: BerryJ | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wat Saket: Festival of Light

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sergei Gussev, CC BY 2.0. Every November, the temple hosts an annual festival that inverts its grim history into celebration. A candlelight procession winds up the steep path of Phu Khao Thong to the golden chedi, which is wrapped in a long red robe in a tradition observed since Rama V's reign. Devotees w...

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Image: Sergei Gussev | CC BY 2.0