The Golden Buddha Mountain (Khao Chi Chan) in Pattaya

Our plans for today is to visit the Mountain of the Golden Buddha in Pattaya. It’s a sacred place for Thais. The largest rock Buddha image seems to have been built there. We will be interested in it and the unique beauty of the surrounding nature. It was created quite recently, in 1996. Then Thailand was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the reign of King Bhumibol Adulyadej IX. The figure of the saint, which is 160 meters high and seventy feet wide at the knees of the closed feet of the Buddha, was carved in the rock in just two days using laser technology.

After the erection of the Buddha image on Mount Khao Chi Chan, the resort town of Pattaya, which is 15 km from it, became not only a tourist destination but also a place of worship for Thais themselves. They expressed their loyalty to the King and their religious awe of the Buddha by decorating the mountain with gold leaf. This is the only precedent in the entire Buddhist world for an open-air mountain of the Golden Buddha to be decorated in this way. For tourists, the mountain in whose slope the image of the Buddha is carved is called the “Mount of the Golden Buddha,” but officially its name is much more pompous and solemn: His Majesty the Buddha is beautiful and chaste as Maha Vachira.

For Thais, such adornment was indeed a religious sacrifice – a total of about three million dollars in gold had to be spent on such a large image of the Golden Buddha. Of this impressive amount for Thailand, almost one-third was collected by the locals. At the foot of the mountain is a magnificent, lush oriental garden and there are two lakes, the surface of which is decorated with blooming lotuses.

The ambience of Golden Buddha Mountain Park in Pattaya is one of tranquility and meditation. But that doesn’t mean that everything is given over to Divine Providence, which will guard the surrounding beauty. The place, which the royal family of Thailand considers their “home church,” is guarded by the Thai Guard. This park is not only open to the monarchs, ordinary Thais can worship their deity here as well. For this purpose organized a lot of places where you can pray and make offerings. Tourists are allowed to go there too.

Oddly enough, it’s the tourists who are here the most. The line tourist buses, stretching to the Mountain of the Golden Buddha, is simply endless. The Thais don’t mind the endless photo shoots of the Russians, Chinese and Japanese. They believe that touching their deity can enrich everyone spiritually. However, their tolerance should not be abused.

Quadcopter video of Khao Chi Chan Mountain

Khao Chi Chan Mountain on map

Mountain of the Golden Buddha (Khao Chi Chan) in Pattaya

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