Phuket Attractions

Venue: Wat Phra Thong    When: Daily

Wat Phra Thong (or Golden Buddha Temple) is one of the biggest temples in Phuket, home to an enormous half-buried Buddha whose intriguing history stretches back centuries.

According to legend, the ancient Buddha is protected by a spell, which is believed to cause death to anyone attempting to remove it from the ground. It all began centuries ago, when a young boy tying his buffalo to a hard, muddy object sticking up from a field suddenly died. Little did he know, the object was in fact the head of the Buddha. Because in Thai culture the head is the most sacred part of the body, it is thought that the boy's death was the result of this outrageous insult.

During the following centuries several invaders tried to dig the Buddha up, but with little success, and apparently several men died in the process. Eventually excavation works were abandoned and a temple was built over the Buddha's head.