Overview
Rama III rebuilt the temple in the 1830s as a public university, covering its walls with inscribed panels on medicine, history, literature and astrology — a curriculum in stone for people who could not attend a school, now on the UNESCO Memory of the World register. The massage school in the grounds trains practitioners to a national standard and takes walk-ins. There are 1,000 Buddha images here, more than any other temple in Thailand.
Highlights
Walk the length of the reclining Buddha’s back and drop coins in the 108 bowls along the wall; the sound is the point. An hour’s massage at the school costs less than a taxi across town and is done by students under supervision. Wat Pho adjoins the Grand Palace, so the two are one morning — do Wat Pho second, when the palace crowd has arrived.