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The name
Rama I gave the temple a name that means to wash the hair
The temple dates from the Ayutthaya period, when it was called Wat Sakae. When Bangkok became the capital, Rama I renovated it and gave its present name. By tradition, the king stopped here to bathe and wash his hair on returning from war.
A collapse
A huge chedi collapsed during building and the mud turned into a hill
Rama III planned a chedi of huge dimensions, but it collapsed because the soft soil of Bangkok could not support the weight. The abandoned structure took the shape of a natural hill, which locals called the phu khao, and soldiers used it as a lookout.
The gold chedi
A small chedi on the hill was covered in gold and holds a relic from Sri Lanka
Work on a small chedi began under Rama IV and was completed early in the reign of Rama V. It was covered in a layer of gold. Concrete walls added in the 1940s stopped the hill from eroding.
The festival
Every November a candlelight procession climbs the hill with a red robe
An annual festival is held every November, with a candlelight procession up Phu Khao Thong to the chedi, which is wrapped in a long red robe. Devotees write their names and those of their family on the robe. The tradition dates from the reign of Rama V.
Cholera
Cholera in 1820 filled the temple grounds with bodies and vultures
Wat Saket lay outside the city walls, so it received the city's funerals. A cholera outbreak in 1820 spread from Penang to Bangkok, claiming over 30,000 lives. Bodies overwhelmed the cremation facilities, and vultures came to feed on those left in the open.
30,000lives claimed in the capital by the 1820 outbreak
Day 2, morning
Next is Jim Thompson House.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Wat Saket, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.