A Chinatown temple with a changed name
The temple was formerly known as Wat Sam Chin and is associated with Bangkok's Chinese community. Its present name, Traimit, means “three friends,” and the temple became a second-class royal temple in 1956.
Wat Traimit and the Golden Buddha
Wat Traimit stands at the edge of Bangkok's Yaowarat Chinatown and houses Phra Phuttha Maha Suwanna Patimakon, the famous Buddha image whose gold surface was revealed by accident in 1955.
The plaster shell and the gold image
The Buddha had been covered in plaster and was moved to the temple in 1935. When the shell cracked during a 1955 relocation, the solid-gold image beneath was discovered. The story is documented as a modern discovery; claims about the image's earlier origin remain historical interpretation. The temple also houses the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center.