Phra Kaeo Morakot
The sacred Emerald Buddha in Bangkok | © JPSwimmer / Wikimedia Commons
Thailand’s most revered Buddha image, Phra Kaeo Morakot, is housed within Bangkok’s Wat Phra Kaeo, known also as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Many tourists come to ogle the famous statue, and many Thais come to pray and show their respects. Seated on a raised platform and measuring around 66 centimetres in height, the statue is made from green jade. It is wrapped in a golden cloth, and the Thai King is the only person permitted to touch the statue to change the cloth. Discovered in the 1400s in Northern Thailand, it was moved between several Thai and Laotian temples before finally arriving at its present location in the 1780s.