Siam: Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Bangkok, Thailand looks like every other big third world city: concrete skyscrapers and hotels mixed with asphyxiating traffic, streets teeming with pedestrians, Japanese compacts, and scant evidence of any rich traditional and notable cultural heritage. But when you do find it, it's dazzling.

Made famous in part by Yul Bryner in the stage play and film, “The King and I,” the Grand Palace complex sits on the bank of the Chao Phraya River which winds its way through the center of Bangkok. Within the walled compound are religious and government buildings, the King's former residence, and the Wat Phra Kaeo: the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.




My first glimpse from the road was startling. From the Bronx grey mundaneness of the city, to the truly foreign shapes and bright colors being reflected by the tropical sun, my brain couldn't keep pace with my retinas. This was Disney World except that this was the real thing, and it made Disney designers look utterly unimaginative. Moreover, unlike most cultural sites the world over, the glittering buildings have been well maintained since they were restored in 1982 allowing the site to be seen not as a ruin or a museum relic but as it must have appeared at its zenith.



It is fantasy. Its extraordinarily ornate, gilded surfaces and unlikely combination of stupas and angular roofs is a formula for kitsch and gaudiness but somehow it finds harmony. It's beautiful. I felt the same awe and got the same goose-bumps as when I first saw Moscow's Red Square at night—a mixture of deep appreciation for the "mother of the arts" (architecture and proportion), and a sense of place in history.








To add to the moment, high above me hanging from the eaves of the temple were hundreds of tiny wind chimes tinkling in the tropical breeze. My guide said the sound was to scare away the evil spirits, but to me it was simply magic . . . this was Siam.