Zhongzheng Park is located on the slopes of Dashawan Mountain, to the east of Keelung City. The park is renowned for its striking 25 meter tall white statue of the Goddess of Mercy, which has become an iconic feature of Keelung.
The park offers panoramic views of Keelung City and the harbor and is organized into three levels. The first level features a historic cannon fort. The second level houses a Buddhist library, the Martyrs' Shrine, and the Zhuputan Temple. The temple attracts numerous worshipers on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month for Zhongyuan Ghost Festival. The third level is home to the Guanhai Pavilion, where visitors can enjoy a sweeping view of Keelung and the ocean.
The Goddess of Mercy statue is the park's most prominent landmark and is the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia. Inside the statue, a stairway leads to the top, providing a stunning vantage point. The Zhuputan Temple, a focal point for worshipers during the Zhongyuan Ghost Festival, was originally established...
Wat Chumphon Nikayaram, classified as a royal second class temple. It is adjacent to the Bang Pa-in Royal Palace and to the Chao Praya River. It is believed that the temple was established in the reign of Prachao Prasat Thong during the Ayutthaya Era in 1632. The temple was later restored in the reign of Rama IV and Rama V of the Rattanakosin Era.
What is interesting here is the magnificent monastery in which seven principal Buddha images made of sandstone mixed with stucco are installed, which makes it different from what ordinary temples have. The mural paintings depicting the life of 7 Buddhas on the inside of the monastery are well kept but with time passing, some parts are showing their age.
The temple possesses a square-based stupa with 12 indented corners in which Buddha's relics have been placed and the stupa was built in the Ayutthaya style.
Anyone visiting Ayutthaya would be disappointed if they didn't visit Wat Chumphon Nikayaram since it possesses marvelous architecture in ...
Koh Kret เกาะเกร็ด is a small island in the Chao Phraya River in Nonthaburi Province, Thailand. It is around 3 km long and 3 km wide with an area of over 4.2 square kilometers. It has seven main villages, the largest and most populous being Ban Mon. The island is best known for Thai-Mon people who make pottery for a living. The island is only accessed by ferries.
Koh Kret was originally a meander located on the Chao Praya river. Due to Chao Praya river's curvy path, ships would take longer to reach Ayutthaya, Siam's capital at the time.
During the reign of King Thaisa, the king wanted to reduce shipping time and improve the kingdom's economy. He planned a canal which would bypass the meander and act as a shortcut for maritime transport. The canal was dug in 1722, requiring around 10,000 men and taking over a month to complete. After the canal was dug, shipping to Ayutthaya became faster and the canal was called "Klong Lat Kret" by locals. As time passed, the canal became ...
Wat Niwet Thammaprawat Ratchaworawihan วัดนิเวศธรรมประวัติราชวรวิหาร is a Buddhist temple (wat) of the Dhammayut Order, located within the grounds of the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace in Thailand's Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province. Founded in 1878, it is remarkable among Thai Buddhist temples in that its architecture mimics that of a European church, being built in the Gothic Revival style.
The construction of Wat Niwet Thammaprawat was commissioned by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) in 1876, to serve as the royal temple for the newly expanded Bang Pa-In Palace. The temple was designed by Joachim Grassi, one of the first Italian architects employed under the king's government. Many public buildings were built in the Western style during Chulalongkorn's reign, a trend reflecting the modernisation of Siam (as Thailand was then known) at the time. Wat Niwet Thammaprawat was built in Gothic Revival style, with stained glass windows and a Gothic ...
