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Wat Arun

Religious and Sacred Buildings

Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan, or Wat Arun, is a Buddhist temple in the Bangkok Yai district of Bangkok, Thailand, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River in Thonburi. Its name derives from the Hindu god Aruna, often personified as the radiance of the rising sun, and its design fuses Indian influences with Hindu and Buddhist symbolism and Siamese tradition. Although the temple has existed since at least the seventeenth century, its distinctive spire, or prang, was built in the early nineteenth century during the reigns of Rama II and Rama III.

Facts
Building TypeSourced to the subject's own account
Buddhist temple (wat) 1
LocationSourced to the subject's own account
Bangkok Yai district, Bangkok, Thailand, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River in Thonburi 1
Completed Year
1656 2
Completed Year
1851 1
Sourced to the subject's own accountThis is when the temple's distinctive central prang (spire) was completed, not the founding of the temple itself, which the sources place at least as far back as the 17th century.
Disputed
Height (m)
86 1
Sourced to the subject's own accountSources disagree on the central prang's height, reporting figures between 66.8 m and 86 m; the higher commonly cited figure is recorded here pending resolution, per the atlas voice rule that a contested figure is marked debated rather than smoothed into fact.
Classification
Standing StatusSourced to the subject's own account
Standing 1
Building Type
Building Type (category)
Temple / Shrine 2
Connections

Has Building Type

Temple, Concepts

Entity-backed identity for the building-type enum value this building already carries, resolved to an architecture concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The building-type fact itself stays on the building unchanged.

In Style

The Temple of Dawn on the Chao Phraya, its porcelain-encrusted prang rebuilt under Rama II and Rama III, an iconic example of Thai temple architecture.

Uses Element

Source Wat Arun (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wat Arun (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • lead paragraph, sentence 1
    Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan or Wat Arun is a Buddhist temple (wat) in the Bangkok Yai district of Bangkok, Thailand.
  • lead paragraph, sentence 2
    It is situated in Thonburi on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River.
  • Architecture section, prang completion sentence
    The main prang was completed in 1851, after nine years of continued construction.
  • Architecture section, height range sentence
    The height is reported by different sources as between 66.8 m (219 ft) and 86 m (282 ft).
  • Entity description and the lead of the Wikipedia article
    Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan, or Wat Arun, is a Buddhist temple in the Bangkok Yai district of Bangkok, Thailand, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River in Thonburi. Its name derives from the Hindu god Aruna, often personified as the radiance of the rising sun, and its design fuses Indian influences with Hindu and Buddhist symbolism and Siamese tradition. Although the temple has existed since at least the seventeenth century, its distinctive spire, or prang, was built in the early nineteenth century during the reigns of Rama II and Rama III.
  • Uses Element: Brick, Wikipedia article
    It is built of brick and plastered on the outside, which is wrought into a grotesque and fantastic mosaic with Chinese cups, plates, and dishes of all sizes and colours, broken and whole, so set in the plaster as to form figures of elephants, monkeys, demons, and griffins, flowers, fruits, vines, and arabesques.
View the Source
2. Wikidata: Wat Arun
  • Wikidata Q724970, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
  • Wikidata Q724970, P571 claim (w-bbfill-artsarchag-0926)
View the Source
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