The construction of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in the First Reign can be divided into two periods. During the first the boundaries of the Temple on the north and the cast were even more limiting than at the present time. The temple compound was enclosed by galleries and in the south was built the ubosoth ( ordination hall) enshrining the Emerald Buddha as its main image. Other construction, as we shall see, was to follow.

The History of the Emerald Buddha

The Emerald Buddha is in reality carved from a large piece of green jade. According to a reliable chronicle, in 1434 A.D. lightning struck a chedi in Chiengrai in northern Thailand and a Buddha statue covered with stucco was found inside. The image was brought into the abbot's residence and one day he noticed that the stucco on the nose had flaked off and the image inside was green in color. He removed all the stucco and found the Emerald Buddha. (The word emerald here only means "green colored" in Thai.) People then flocked to worship this precious statue. At that time the town of Chiengrai was under the rule of the king of Chiengmai. The latter, King Samfangkaen, sent an elephant to bring the Emerald Buddha to Chiengmai, but each time the elephant arrived at the junction with the road to the city of Lampang, it ran to that town. The king sent an elephant out three times and each time the same incident occurred, so he thought that the spirits guarding the Emerald Buddha wanted to stay in Lampang. Thus the Emerald Buddha was allowed to remain in Lampang for 32 years, until 1468, when Chiengmai had a powerful king, King Tiloka. He had the Emerald Buddha brought to Chiengmai and, according to one chronicle, installed the image in the eastern niche of a large stupa called Chedi Luang. In 1551 the King of Chiengmai, who had no son, died. One of his daughters was married to the King of Laos. She had borne one son, named Prince Chaichettha. When the King of Chiengmai died the ministers of Chiengmai invited the Prince, who was fifteen, to become King and he accepted. However, when his father, the King of Laos, passed away, King Chaichettha wanted to go back to his own country, so in 1552 he returned to Luang Prabang, the then capital of Laos, taking the Emerald Buddha with him, and promised the ministers of Chiengmai to come back. He never returned nor did he send back the Emerald Buddha, so the image remained at Luang Prabang for twelve years.

In 1564 King Chaichettha could not resist the Burmese army of King Burannaung; thus he moved his capital down to Vientiane and the Emerald Buddha remained there for 214 years. In 1778, during the Thonburi period, when King Rama I of Bangkok was still a general, he captured Vientiane and brought the Emerald Buddha back to Thailand. With the establishment of Bangkok as the capital, the Emerald Buddha became the palladium of Thailand and has been ever since. The image was moved from Thonburi to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok on 22nd March 1784. King Rama I had two seasonal costumes made for the Emerald Buddha, one for summer and one for the rainy season. King Rama III (I824-1851) added another one for winter. The ceremony of changing the costumes of the Emerald Buddha. takes place three times a year. In the old days the king would spray lustral water only on the princes and officials who were attending the ceremony inside the ubosoth. But during the present reign, His Majesty the King also sprays lustral water upon his subjects who are waiting outside the ordination hall. It can be regarded as a new tradition inaugurated in this reign.

The lap of the Emerald Buddha is 48.3 cm. wide and the height, including the base, is 66 cm. The image is in a seated. position, with the right leg resting on the left one. Judging from this iconographic factor, one could conclude that it was carve in Northern Thailand not much earlier than the fifteenth century A.D. and belongs to the late Northern Thai, that is to say, the late Chiengsaen or Chiengmai school. If this is so, it must has been made not long before its discovery in the stupa in Chiengrai. On the other hand, the Emerald Buddha, which is in the altitude of meditation, looks much like some of the Buddha images of Southern India and Sri Lanka, especially those in this same attitude. The attitude of meditation has never been popular in Thai images of the Buddha. Thus one might assign the origin of the Emerald Buddha to one of the aforementioned countries.

Inside the ubosoth containing the EmeraId Buddha there also are other interesting items:

1. The gold-covered wooden throne, made in the First Reign, on which the Emerald Buddha sits. H.R.H. Prince Naris, one of the most famous architects and artists of the Bangkok periods, admired it greatly. He wrote that it was the best of its kind he had ever seen in Bangkok. Originally the golden throne rested on what now is its lowest base, but King Rama III added the intermediary one.

2. The mother-of-pearl door-panels made its the First Reign of Bangkok following the style of the late Ayudhya period.

3. Two large standing crowned Buddha images dedicated to King Rama I and King Rama II. In the reign of King Rama III, the public called the reign of King Rama I The Beginning Reign and that of King Rama II The Middle Reign. King Rama III thought that giving each reign such an appellation was a bad omen for the dynasty since it suggested that his would be the last reign. Thus in 1841 he had so large standing crowned Buddha images cast in bronze. About 3 In. high, they are in the attitude of calming the ocean and are covered with gold and precious gems. He named the one placed on the northern side of the Emerald Buddha Phra Puttha Yodfa Chulalok and the one on the south, Phra Puttha Lerdla Napalai, and dedicated them, respectively, to King Rama I and King Rama II. A proclamation was then issued for the public to call the first two kings by these official names. These two Buddha images were worshipped at the ceremony in which officials took the oath of allegiance to the king beginning with the reign of King Rama IV (King Mongkut, 1851-1 868). The ceremony was discontinued, however, after the Revolution in 1932 leading to the establishment of the constitutional monarchy.

4. A small bronze Buddha image called Phra Samputtha Panni created by King Rama IV in 1830 when he was still in the monkshood. The monk-prince invented a new type of Buddha image without a cranial protuberance, wearing a pleated monastic robe and seated in the attitude of meditation. Phra Samputtha Panni has been placed in front of the throne supporting the Emerald Buddha.

5. Ten crowned Buddha images in bronze in the attitude of calming the ocean. They are covered with gold and were installed in pairs on the base supporting the throne of the Emerald Buddha. They were created by successive kings of the present Chakri Dynasty and were dedicated to high members of the royal family, both male and female, from the First to the Third Reigns.

6. Mural paintings inside the ubosoth. The scene of the Buddhist cosmology (the Three Worlds of Desire, Form and Non-Form) on the western wall behind the Emerald Buddha and that of the Enlightenment of the Buddha on the eastern, or front wall, were painted in the reign of King Rama I. At that time there probably was portrayed on the tipper part of the lateral walls the assembly of celestial beings who came to worship the main Buddha image in the ubosoth, a feature typical of the late Ayudhya and early Bangkok painting styles. The walls between the window's were decorated with scenes from the Life of the Buddha. King Rama II had the lateral walls repainted. Above the window's on both the north and the south were depicted scenes from the life of the Buddha whereas between the windows various scenes from the jataka (previous lives of the Buddha) were shown. On the depicted and the southern side shows a riverine procession. These paintings still exist.

In the scene of the Enlightenment of the Buddha or always sees the Buddha seated under the Bodhi tree either in the attitude of meditation (having the right hand on the left one the lap) or subduing Mara (having the right hand on the right knee with the palm facing inward and the fingers pointing to the ground with the left hand on the lap). The Earth Goddess is underneath wringing out water from her hair, and the Buddha is flanked both sides by the army of Mara (evil spirits); on one side they at trying to attack the Master and on the other they have already bee subjugated. According to the Life of the Buddha, before Enlightenment Mara came and asked the Buddha what right he had to attain Enlightenment in this life and bring people out of ignorance The Buddha replied that in Isis past lives (a Buddhist believes rebirth) lie had accumulated enough merit to attain Enlightenment in this life. (Usually when one performs deeds of merit, even nowadays, one has to pour water on the ground to make the Earth Goddess one's witness and also to give merit to the dead.) The Buddha then changed his attitude from meditation to that of subduing Mara by placing his right hand on his right knee calling the Earth Goddess up from the ground. She wrung from her hair the water accumulated from the deeds of merit that the Buddha had performed in his previous lives and this drowned the whole of Mara's army. The Buddha then continued his meditation until lie arrived at the Supreme Enlightenment.

Sometimes this scene is explained as an allegory of personification of the thought of the Buddha. During this period the Buddha was undergoing a mental struggle as to whether he should go back to worldly pleasure or continue his meditation until he arrived at the Supreme Enlightenment. Once he had decided to continue his meditation, he put his right hand on his right knee as a sign of his determination not to get up from his seat until his great desire had been accomplished.

7. Bronze lion door-guardians. There are altogether twelve, in six pairs. It had been believed that the pair guarding the main central door of the ubosoth on the east, which can be entered only by the Chief of State, was brought from Cambodia by command of King Rama I and the rest were copied in that reign. However, Professor Boisselier, the renowned French expert on Khmer Art, examined the central pair of lion-guardians and concluded that the design on their chest is Thai in style rather than Khmer. They probably were cast by Thai artisans copying Khmer lions. On both sides of the main staircase in front of the Royal Pantheon on the east sit two stone lion-guardians. Though they have been very much restored, one can perceive that they belong to the Khmer Bayon style (about the early thirteenth century A.D.). Therefore it might be that this pair of stone lions was brought from Cambodia during the reign of King Rama I and the bronze ones were cast in that reign to copy them.

In addition to the ubosoth containing the Emerald Buddha, King Rama I also had twelve small open pavilions built around it. North of the ubosoth at the site of the present Library or Phra Mondop, lie had a library in the late Ayudhya and early Bangkok fashions constructed in the middle at a pond in order to keep the termites from coming to eat the holy palm-leaf manuscripts. The building was also used in that reign by those translating foreign correspondence. On the east of the pond, at the present site of the Royal Pantheon, two gilded stupa were built on the ground in commemoration of the king's parents. A belfry was also constructed south of the ubosoth for bronze bell, valued for its rich sound, that been removed from Wat Saket in Bangkok.

In 1788 King Rama I had the Tripitaka (the Buddhist Holy Manuscripts) revised at Wat Mahathat, and after the revision was completed, transferred a new' copy of it to the new library inside the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and ordered a grand celebration. Unfortunately sparks from fireworks fell on the roof of the library and burnt it down but the Tripitaka was saved in time. During the second phase of construction under King Rama I, the king had the pond under the library filled up, enlarged the boundaries of the Temple on both its eastern and northern sides to the present limits and constructed many other buildings. On top of the pond that had been filled up the king had a new' library built, containing a large, beautiful mother- of-pearl inlaid book-cabinet to house the Tripitaka. This superb book-cabinet was made under the supervision of Chao Praya Mahasena, the founder of the Bunnag family. H.R.H. Prince Naris admired this new library very much for its style and decoration, such as a bronze snake with human faces, rather than reptilian ones on the railing of each staircase, the demon door-guardians and the mother-of-pearl inlaid door-panels. On the enlarged grounds to the north, the king's younger brother, the Prince of the Palace to the Front, built for his brother a supplementary library, Ho Phra Monthien Tham, housing the rest of the Tripitaka. It was also used as a site for the translation of foreign correspondence. Inside are kept many beautiful mother-of-pearl inlaid book-cabinets, and the door of the building, which is decorated with the same material, dates back to 1752 in the late Ayudhya period, during the reign of King Boromkot (1732-1758). The mural paintings inside, which originally dated from the early Bangkok period, have recently been totally restored. On the west and next to the Supplementary Library near the present Viharn Yod was built the White Viharn for the keeping of Buddha images and the Viharn Phra Thep Bidorn.

Phra Thep Bidorn was probably a Hindu image and was believed to represent King U Thong, the founder of Ayudhya the capital prior to Bangkok. King Rama I had the sculpture brought down to Bangkok and recast into a crowned Buddha image covered with silver. Next to the Viharn Phra Thep Bidorn on the west another Viharn (congregation hall) was constructed to house a large standing Buddha image of copper alloy. It is 4 m. high and is called Phra Nak. This image had been moved down from Ayudhya and the building containing it was named Ho Phra Nak.

In front of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha on the east, the king had eight prang (towers) constructed . They were dedicated respectively from the north to the south to the following important elements of Buddhist: the Buddha, the Dhamma (the Law), the Sangha (Buddhist monks), the Bhikshuni (Buddhist nuns who existed in the old days), Pacchekabodhi Buddhas (Buddhas who attained Enlightenment but never preached), the chakravati (great emperors), the Bodhisava (the Buddha in his previous lives, according to Theravada Buddhism) and the Maitreya (the future Buddha).

In the reign of King Rama II nothing was added, but in the reign of his son, King Rama III, the whole temple was restored since many buildings had decayed and were in the of repair to make them appropriate for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Bangkok in 1832. He began the restoration its 1831, one year before the festivities. The king had the superstructure of the ubosoth restored and changed the decoration to its exterior walls from gold on red lacquer to gilt-stucco decorated with colored glass which is as it appears today. He also had 112 figures of garuda (the king of birds) holding naga (the king of snakes) cast in bronze to ornament the base. The mural painting inside were newly painted as mentioned above except for the scenes of the Buddhist cosmology and the Enlightenment of the Buddha, respectively, on the western and eastern walls.