Wat Si Chum

About this place

Sukhothai's most astonishing sight: a giant seated Buddha known as Phra Achana, some fifteen metres tall and eleven wide, filling a square roofless building with high, thick walls, so that its serene face peers through a long narrow slit in the front wall and seems, from a distance, to be looking at you alone. The building dates from the late fourteenth century, and the statue's right hand, reaching to the ground, has gilded fingers from the gold leaf visitors press onto it. Within the thickness of the wall runs a narrow passage monks once climbed, its ceiling engraved with scenes from the Buddha's past lives, now closed to protect it. Sukhothai was the capital of the first Thai kingdom in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, where the Thai alphabet took shape and a distinctive style of Buddha images flourished, with flowing bodies and serene smiles; its ruins are today part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site listed in 1991. The temple is in the northern zone outside the walls, which has a separate ticket of about one hundred baht for foreigners. Modest dress is required, as it is still a place of worship. The midday heat is fierce from March to May, so come early in the morning or late afternoon, with a hat and water. Come in the morning or just before sunset, when light falls on the face through the slit. It is minutes by bicycle from the central zone.