Wat Pho is the popular name for Wat Phra Chetuphon. This world famous temple, one of Bangkok's oldest.

Wat Pho was built by King Rama I nearly 200 years ago and houses a gigantic gold plated Reclining Buddha, 15 meters highand 46 meters long. The reclining posture depicts the transcendence of Buddha from the mortal world into nirvana. the immortal state of absolute peace. The unique feature of the image is the Buddha's soles with intricately inlaid mother-of-pearl illustrations, of the 108 auspicious physical features of the Buddha. Wat Pho is the temple with largest number of pagodas (95 in all) in the city.

Wat Pho is also regarded as the first center of public education and is called ‘Thailand’s first university’. Mural paintings, inscriptions, and statues found in the temple educated people on varied subjects such as literature, warfare, archaeology, astronomy, geology, meditation and Thai traditional massage. The temple is also the headquarters for the Traditional Medicine Practitioners of Bangkok. Thai-style massage is available in two open plan areas within the temple ground.

The temple is open daily from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.