Oldest Buddha in Thailand:

Not far from Ayutthaya, stands a temple with a Buddha that is more than 1500 hundred years old. Yes, you read this right--1500 years old! We were given 20 minutes at this stop when I could have spent half the day, at least. The buddha is made of pure solid gold and is encrusted with precious jewels, e.g. it has a huge ruby on its chest. (Couldn't get the ruby to show up no matter how close I tried to get!)

This awesome Buddha is considered the most beautiful of all of Thailand's buddhas--the one that the King and Queen visit whenever they are traveling through the area.

We were permitted to take photos but not to use flash. The temple was filled with folks making offerings and I felt nervous taking photos. Often people buy gold leaf and press it into the smaller buddha images as an offering. I feared it would be disrespectful to try and get pictures of this. For Thais, to see this Buddha is a once-in-a-lifetime event and the excitement and reverence in the crowd was palpable.

Thailand has over 40,000 temples but this one definitely stands out as one of the most important I have seen here.

Small image with gold leaf stuck all over it.

Another lesser image.

Image in a side temple. Note the monk sitting next to it.

Entrance to the temple of the golden Buddha.