Hidden Bangkok Temples

Thai exterior + interior influenced by European/Italian design, plus a large royal cemetery hidden behind it.

The childhood school of Sunthorn Phu, Thailand's most famous classical poet. The temple itself is much less important than the connection between literature, education and old Bangkok canal life.

Photo: Chainwit / CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

An Ayutthaya-period temple whose name literally relates to a female ascetic/nun. Its origin story involves a nobleman's daughter recovering from illness and making a religious offering. Very local-feeling Thonburi.

Photo: Supanut Arunoprayote / CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

Thonburi riverside history, old canals and one of the most interesting stories around the temple's name: a bell found here became associated with the famous bells of Wat Arun after being moved during the early Bangkok period.

Photo: Pablotorrado / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

Historically it's fascinating: founded around 1610, nearly abandoned, then transformed by meditation master Luang Pu Sodh into a huge educational/meditation centre. It's also the origin point of the Dhammakaya tradition.

Photo: กสิณธร ราชโอรส / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

Prince Mongkut lived here as a monk for 27 years before becoming Rama IV. The temple also began as two separate monasteries divided by a canal.

Photo: Don Ramey Logan / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

The famous “David Beckham Temple.” Traditional Buddhist decoration contains bizarre modern/pop-culture figures. Pikachu, superheroes, Beckham, etc. It has become more famous recently

Photo: Ahoerstemeier / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

Dark history + extraordinary murals. An Ayutthaya-era temple that was reportedly used as an execution site for Burmese prisoners during the Thonburi period. The interior murals are the real reason to come.

Yes, it has the huge standing Buddha - but the more interesting story is that it began as Wat Rai Phrik (“Vegetable Fields Temple”), and Rama I gave the land partly to accommodate prisoners of war.

A sleepy riverside temple near Thewet that predates Bangkok as the capital. The interesting part is the surrounding old riverside community rather than monumental architecture.

Photo: กสิณธร ราชโอรส / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

Often overshadowed by the famous temples nearby. Originally called Wat Liap and predates Bangkok; Rama I rebuilt it in 1793. Interesting because you're looking at a piece of the city before modern Bangkok really existed.

Photo: Supanut Arunoprayote / CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

Hidden behind Samsen Road. Originally connected to a family memorial; its present name comes from three generations of officials who restored it.

Photo: Preecha / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

A miniature sacred mountain called Khao Mo, surrounded by water and turtles - an unexpectedly peaceful little ecosystem beneath the enormous white chedi.

A seriously strange-looking Thonburi temple where Thai and Myanmar/Burmese artistic styles collide.

Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg / CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (resized)