The Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha

Another one of the major structures in the Grand Palace complex in Bangkok is the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha. This is basically a temple that houses an emerald Buddha – one of the most highly venerated figures in the country. The fact is, the Emerald Buddha, isn’t even made of emerald at all, but it was carved from a single rock of jade. When it was first discovered, the statue was covered in plaster and only until the plaster was peeling that the greed jade was revealed. Thinking it was emerald, it was quickly named the Emerald Buddha and enshrined.

The Emerald Buddha

After a tug of war between the kingdom of Laos and Thailand, it was finally enshrined in what is now the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha. Faithful can buy lotus flowers to offer to the Buddha and while visitors are permitted to enter the temple, footwear is forbidden and so is photography. Fortunately, I had my trusty telephoto lens to take a close up view of the Emerald Buddha from the outside.

Impressive Carvings on the Monastery

Contrary to the name of the place, there are no monks which stay in this particular monastery. This place also serves as the private chapel of the king. As usual the building is clad in shiny material making it shine in the morning sun. There were a lot of visitors that day, including a troupe of students who are apparently on a field trip. Most of the students seemed uninterested while a teacher or possibly a guide was lecturing them about the temple. And I thought that most Thai would have already visited this place by then.

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The Royal Pantheon

One of the more elegant structures on the Upper Terraces in the Grand Palace was the Prasat Phra Dhepbidorn, quite a mouthful, or the Royal Pantheon. The Royal Pantheon is where statues of the past rulers of Thailand are enshrined. The current dynasty is the Chakri dynasty and the current ruler is King Bhumibol Adulyadej also known as King Rama IX. Thailand is ruled by a constitutional monarchy with the king as the head of state.

Impressive Architecture Fit for a King

The king of Thailand is widely respected and revered throughout the country that speaking against the king is a punishable offense. However, there is really little to complain about the king anyway. He is seen as a benevolent and fatherly figure for the entire country. To date, the current King Rama IX is the world longest reigning monarch having reigned from 1946.

Statues Adorn the Royal Pantheon

The monarchy of Thailand has a rich and colorful history and is worth reading up on. Throughout the years, the Thai monarchy itself has undergone tremendous transformations. Among them, the abolition of kneeling in front of the king and the relinquishing of absolute authority. Despite that, the Thai king still hold tremendous influence in the daily affairs of the nation despite not having full authority. Any political movements will need the approval of the Thai king in order to succeed as can be seen in the recent events in the tit-for-tat demonstrations in Thailand.

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The Citadel

We stepped outside the Ngoc Mai Hotel wondering how to get to the Hue’s UNESCO World Heritage sites. Our guides still haven’t arrived yet. Fortunately, there were some locals with motorcycles asking us whether we wanted to go there. Of course we agreed. The ride took around 15 minutes from the hotel to the main square where the temple complex is. There is a lot of activity in the area and a lot of tourists too. But most of the tourists were Vietnamese. There were a handful of Caucasians too but not a lot.

Inside the Royal Palace

We are currently at the Imperial Citadel Đại Nội, one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Hue. This is a palace/temple complex built by the Nguyen Dynasty as recently as two hundred years ago. Actually that was quite surprising, as I wasn’t expecting these temples to be built so recently. Unlike the temples of maybe China whose temples, have existed for a millennia or two. Regardless, the temples of Hue have that unmistakable Chinese feel, signs that China had such a huge influence in the history and culture of Vietnam. If one were to transport the temple to somewhere in China, it would look totally at home.

Fixing up the Lanterns

After paying the entrance fee, we entered the palace grounds. This place used to be the seat of power when Hue was the capital of Vietnam at that time. The Nguyen emperors had these temples built for their use. It was also during this time that Hue because the academic and cultural capital of Vietnam. The palace is surrounded by a moat, still with water, and with a carpet of water lilies covering it. The water lilies made the otherwise boring moat come to life with color.

Citadel at Dusk

The Ngọ Môn gate at the entrance was a beautiful sight. It has all the markings of Chinese design complete with Chinese characters. One could actually climb up and walk to it and get a good view of the surrounding area. There are huge drums on top presumably for defense. The central door of the gate and the bridge crossing the moat is reserved exclusively for the emperor.

Lights On for the Festival

Further in the complex is the royal palace Thái Hòa itself. As expected it is truly magnificent in its design. Even the columns are exquisitely carved with dragons. Little wonder why Hue became the cultural capital of Vietnam for a while. I found it amazing to see that the palace was so well preserved considering that Vietnam was in civil war just a couple of decades ago. The people have done a great job preserving such as precious treasure. The palace is where the emperors would hold court and receive foreign dignitaries.

Behind the palace is an area full of red lanterns. I was curious as to what the purpose of those lanterns were, when we were informed that these were a actually fireworks for the night’s festival. Actually, there are a couple of buildings in a state disrepair. It seems they were destroyed in the civil war.

There were more and more people coming in the Citadel and were gathering in the open area. In another part of the complex were some performances showing traditional dances. I wasn’t really interested in them we hung around for a while to see if something will happen.

Huge Bell

By this time, the sun had already set and the palace was all lit up. The temple now looked even more impressive with the lights turned on. Combine that with the slowly darkening sky and the water of the moat, it really makes for a beautiful scene.

Outside the Citadel, was also another performance area, this is more like a concert more than anything else. Not wanting to lose myself in the huge crowd gathered at the performance area we decided to go back to the hotel.

For you readers, it may be interesting to see how big the complex actually was if you look at the map and zoom back a little bit. Only after seeing the scale of how big the imperial citadel was can one truly admire their skill in building this icon of Hue.

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