Wat Intaram - King Taksin Shrine

When I was in Bangkok, I wanted to go to Wat Inn (one of Somdej Toh's temples), but the taxi driver took me to Wat Intaram in Thonburi instead. As I've never been there before, I just walked inside for a tour and discovered that this was the temple famous for its King Taksin Shrine.

The statue of King Taksin (1734-1782) sitting on a throne inside the Vihara. King Taksin is the great Chinese-Thai general who liberated Ayuttaya from the Burmese in the same year that they conquered and burned it down (in 1767). In the subsequent year (1768) he was crowned King in Thonburi. After driving the Burmese out of Thai soil, he set about to reunify the entire Thai Kingdom, finally achieving complete success in 1779. Even though he became mad and was disposed of in 1782, people still remember him for his immense contributions to the Kingdom until today.

Another statue of a young King Taksin (whose Chinese name was Zheng Xin) sitting in meditation. I believe that even though I've came here by mistake, there's some inexplicable karmic link with my paying homage to Ajarn Thammachot and the Bang Rajan heroes a day ago. I then remembered the battlefield nimitta I experienced while meditating in Wat Ampawan. Incidentally, LP Jarun also mentioned about King Taksin in his writings on "the advantages of chanting Buddhaguna". I then came to the realization that everything was connected in a wonderful way.

Outside the entrance of the Shrine. School students were on excursion there, learning about the history of their country.

In the courtyard was this large statue of King Taksin riding a horse, pasted with gold foil.

There were a large number of golden Buddha Images inside the Ubosot.

A tree shrine to the 8 great Arahants in another part of the courtyard.

The Chedi of Wat Intaram.

A distant view of another Vihara.

Yet another golden statue of King Taksin sitting on a throne.

The small King Taksin riding horse bucha that I obtained from the Shrine. The King Taksin katha is as follows:

Namo Tassa (3x)

Om Sino Rachatewa Chayatupawang Sappasat Winassanthi (3 or 9x).