White stucco walls protect the structures and artifacts
within the twenty-acre complex. Long orange and green
temple roofs are offset by ninety-one stupas, large and
small: elongated circular reliquaries that taper into slender
spires. The stupas are sheathed in vivid porcelain-tiled
mosaic to create the dazzling skylines unique to Thailand.
Wat Pho was built in 1688, fifty miles south of the
then capital, Ayutthaya. The complex flourished until
its destruction during the Burmese invasion of 1767,
when Ayutthaya was also overrun. Turmoil within the
government of Siam ended in 1782 with the founding of
HYLAND
