The Temple of Dawn (Arun Ratchawararam Temple)

Located on the west bank of The Chaophraya River in Bangkok of Thailand and being familiar tourist attraction, The Temple of Dawn can easily be reached by taking a ferry boat with fee of 3 baht. Tien pier is the place where you use to travel to the temple and it takes a bit time to get to it. With a little time on board, you can get a cool breeze that make you fresher before get off the boat.

The History of The Temple of Dawn

The first class royal temple that was built since Ayutthaya period, used to be called Wat Makok at the first place then changed to Wat Makok Nok due to the fact that there was another new temple in area called Wat Makok Nai (Wat Nuanoradit). In the later period, King Taksin the great formed the troop via the river from Ayutthaya and reached the temple in the early dawn, which inspired him to renovate the place, and changed the name to Wat Chaeng meaning the temple of dawn at the time Thonburi was found at the capital in 1768, the king built the new palace that surrounded the temple, Wat Chaeng was the temple in the palace that without monks resided. This is the royal temple of Thonburi; used to be the holding place for the Emerald Buddha and Phra Bang-the Buddha images in, which were brought from Vientiane in the reign of king Rama I, the capital was moved from Thonburi to Bangkok as well as the royal palace. The wall of Thonburi Palace was destroyed ever since. As a result, Wat Chaeng was no longer the temple in the palace, and the monks were allowed to reside. The renovation of the place continued until the reign of king Rama II who changed the temple’s name to Wat Arun Ratchatharam. It was renovated again during the time of King Rama IV. Once again, the King changed its name to Wat Arun Ratchawararam.