Bangkok’s Wat Pho is best known for its spectacular 46-meter-long, gold-plated Reclining Buddha, but Thailand’s oldest temple complex has far more to discover. A new digital application is helping visitors explore its history, architecture, art, and cultural heritage beyond its most famous landmark.
Developed by two architecture academics, Insight Wat Pho uses smartphones and interactive technology to offer visitors a deeper understanding of the historic temple. Available in Thai and English, the app was created after the developers observed visitors at Wat Pho and saw that some inadvertently treated historic structures inappropriately, often because they did not understand their significance.
Rather than adding more signs around the temple, the developers designed the app as an educational companion that visitors can access on the smartphones they already use for navigation and photography.
Discover Wat Pho’s History and Heritage
Officially known as Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan, Wat Pho is more than 300 years old and is regarded as Thailand’s first open university, reflecting the breadth of knowledge associated with the temple since the reign of King Rama III.
Its extensive heritage encompasses history, architecture, fine arts, literature, traditional medicine, and religious knowledge. Unlike many historic sites, Wat Pho also has a substantial collection of documented records, illustrations, architectural plans, and drawings covering different periods of the temple’s development and restoration.
This wealth of information inspired the developers to transform Wat Pho into what they describe as a “living museum,” allowing visitors to discover the stories behind its cultural treasures.
Interactive Ways to Explore Wat Pho
Insight Wat Pho includes seven main features: Plan Your Visit, Visitor Map, Wat Pho in History, Wat Pho from the Sky, Explore, Freeze-Frames, and Yak Wat Pho.
The app’s augmented reality (AR) technology creates a three-dimensional model of the temple, while the Wat Pho from the Sky feature provides a bird’s-eye view to help visitors understand the complex layout and find their way through its many passageways.
Another feature introduces visitors to Klon Kon, or Konlabot, a traditional Thai poetic form. Interactive poetry quizzes explain how to decipher the poetic word puzzles found on the temple’s walls.
Yak Wat Pho explores the mythology surrounding Wat Pho’s guardian giants and their legendary connection with the guardian giants of Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn, across the Chao Phraya River. The story provides an engaging way to discover the temple’s collection of giant guardian statues and understand which figures are known as Yak Wat Pho.
See Wat Pho’s Murals in Greater Detail
Insight Wat Pho also provides a virtual experience of the temple’s ordination hall, or Phra Ubosot, which contains remarkable mural paintings.
The murals are particularly significant because, unlike many Thai temple murals that depict the life of the Buddha, those at Wat Pho illustrate the Mahosadha Jataka, one of the Ten Great Birth Stories, emphasizing wisdom, ingenuity, and the triumph of intelligence over force.
The app’s 360-degree virtual reality (VR) tour allows visitors to explore the interior and examine important features from different perspectives. Even when visiting the hall in person, users can zoom in on the murals to see details that may be difficult to appreciate from the ground.
Making Wat Pho’s Knowledge More Accessible
The developers also wanted to make the extensive body of knowledge surrounding Wat Pho easier for visitors to access. Much of the temple’s history and scholarship has traditionally been contained in reference books, some of which can be difficult or expensive for visitors to access.
Insight Wat Pho brings verified information together in a more accessible format, putting historical and academic research directly into visitors’ hands.
The app can also complement guided tours. Tour guides can use it on an iPad to show visitors enlarged images of architectural details, murals, and artwork while explaining features that may be difficult to see inside the temple.
With extensive research still available to incorporate, the developers plan to continue expanding Insight Wat Pho with new content and features. For visitors willing to look beyond the Reclining Buddha, the app offers a modern way to discover the history and cultural treasures that make Wat Pho one of Bangkok’s most fascinating historic sites.
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