Lohaprasat (โลหะปราสาท)

Thai-Sanskrit-Khmer. Structure with a spire in metal. There were initially only three Lohaprasat buildings in the world. The original one was built in India in honour of the Buddha, and had a spire of gold, which gave it its name, as loha is a word derived from Sanskrit which means ‘metal’, whereas prasat is a Khmer word  for an ‘ornamental structure with a needle-like spire’. The first Lohaprasat had only two storeys but around a thousand rooms to house monks. The second was built in Sri Lanka in 161 BC, to commemorate the victory over the Tamil, and had nine storeys and a brass spire. Built in wood, it was destroyed by lightning and rebuilt as a five storied structure however it no longer exists today. The third Lohaprasat was commissioned by Rama III, to commemorate his granddaughter princess Sohmanat Watana Wadih, who later became the first queen of Rama IV. The Thai version has seven storeys with thirty-seven spires surrounding the outside, one on the top, twenty-four on the second floor, and twelve on the fourth, and which represent the seven sets of thirty-seven qualities that must be observed in order to attain Enlightenment as described in the Bodhi Pakkhiyah Dhamma (โพธิปักขิยธรรม) discourse given by the Buddha. The Thai Lohaprasat of Wat Ratchanaddah is the only one of its kind still intact today. On the inside it has labyrinth-like hallways (fig.) and a staircase that leads to the top, where is a busabok that houses a relic of the Buddha (fig.) and offers a bird's-eye view of Rattanakosin (fig.) and the temple's adjacent wihaan (fig.). The maze of corridors on the inside has many corners and niches, several of which have pedestals with Buddha images in different poses. Though commissioned in the reign of King Rama III, the Loha Prasat remained unfinished until the reign of King Rama IX, with final construction taking place in several phases, from 1963 to 1977, with the enshrinement of the relic being completed on 27 February 1995 in a ceremony presided over by King Bhumipon Adunyadet, to mark the start of the Golden Jubilee of the King's Accession to the Throne, in 1996. In 2003, the building was renovated (fig.) on the occasions of the APEC-meeting held in Bangkok, in which many heads of state visited the capital and in 2016, its peaks were eventually gilded, thus completing construction up to the state in which it currently remains (fig.). See MAP, TRAVEL PICTURES (1) and (2), POSTAGE STAMPS (1) and (2), as well as QUADCOPTER PICTURES (1) and (2). 回