Emerald Buddha
The Emerald Buddha is not from emerald as you may thought from its name. It is actually carved from green jade. This statue was found in 1434 in Chiengrai, Northern Thailand after the lightning strucked a worship place. Firstly the Buddha statue was covered with stucco, lately it was discovered that there is a jade under the layer of stucco.
In 1468 the statue was transferred to Chiengmai. In 1552 the Buddha was taken to Laos by its King Chaichettha. It is stayed in Laos for more than 200 years.
In 1778 the King Rama I captured Ventiane where the statue was situated and brought Emerald Buddha to Thailand. With the establishment of Bangkok as the capital, the Emerald Buddha became the "Palladium of Thailand" since that time. It is finally was moved to the specially constructed Temple of the Emerald Buddha in 1784.
King Rama I has made two seasonal costumes for the Buddha statue: one for summer, and one for the rainy season. King Rama III (XIX century) has added one more for winter. The ceremony of changing the costumes of the Emerald Buddha takes place three times a year.
It is believed by Thai that the Buddha statue was made nearly 2,000 years ago. Photography inside the Temple is strictly prohibited, but nobody will object if you are shooting outside with good telephoto lens. I had one, which is, together with wide dynamic range of Fujifilm X-Trans II sensor, gave me the possibility to catch the statue without any restrictions.
There are not so many images of Emerald Buddha in the Internet, due to existing photography restrictions, so you may consider this as a rare one.
Tags: ancient, trip, thailand, thai, photography
