Golden Buddha
Prattha Maha is a pawan patimacon or simply Golden Buddha is the world's largest Buddha statue made of gold and weighing almost 5.5 tons.
The statue is a seated Buddha 3 meters high, the date and place of manufacture of the statue is unknown. But in the shape of the face, scientists suggest that the statue was made in the 13-15th century during the reign of the kingdom of Sukhotai, and the statue itself may have been brought from India and collected in the temple. Around 1403, the statue was transported to the temple of Ayutthaya. During the war with Burma, enemy troops broke into the city and began to rob everything. Anticipating this, the rulers ordered that the statue be plastered so as not to attract attention. As a result, the statue was coated with a thick layer of plaster and inlaid with pieces of colored glass. Perhaps during the war everyone knew this secret died, and the golden Buddha statue stood in an abandoned temple for several decades.
In 1801, the Thai king of Buddha, Yodf Chulaloke, after the creation of Bangkok, ordered to build temples in it and bring various old Buddha images from destroyed temples. Thus, the Golden Buddha got into the temple of Wat Chotanaram, but the temple fell into decay, and in 1935 the statue was transported to the temple of Wat-Treimit, where the statue stood under a simple iron canopy. There was not enough space in the temple to place the statue.
Only in 1954 they built a new building, in 1955 they decided to transport the statue to it. It is not known how it was discovered that the statue was made of gold. According to the main version, during the lifting of the statue, a cable broke from the base, and the Golden Buddha crashed to the ground. When falling, part and gypsum broke off, laid bare the golden basis of the statue. After removing the plaster, it turned out that the statue consists of 9 gold parts interconnected. The statue could be dismantled using a key, which was also at the base of the statue.
When analyzing the statue, it turned out that the body of the Golden Buddha is 40% composed of gold, the head is 80%, and the hair and ears of Buddha weighing 45 kg are 99% gold. According to rough estimates, with a gold value of $ 1,400 per troj ounce, gold in the statue costs $ 250 million.
