Phra Buddha Chinnarat

Phra Buddha Chinnarat, enshrined at Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Woramahawihan in Phitsanulok Province, is a sacred Buddha image that has been revered by Thailand's ruling elite since ancient times. Widely regarded as the most beautiful Buddha image in Thailand, it is also the most frequently replicated.

The oldest known account of Phra Buddha Chinnarat appears in the Northern Chronicle (Phongsawadan Nuea), which was revised in the late reign of King Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok the Great (Rama I) by Phra Wichianpricha (Noi), Chief of the Department of Royal Scholars, who compiled legends of the northern cities from various texts dating back to the Ayutthaya period.

According to the Northern Chronicle, King Si Thammatraipidok, a powerful ruler of Chiang Saen, marched his army south to attack the city of Satchanalai, ruled by King Phasutcharat. The monk Phra Phutthakhosachan intervened to negotiate peace, and King Phasutcharat submitted, offering his daughter, Nang Pathumthewi, as queen consort. King Si Thammatraipidok later founded a new city at the site where the Buddha was believed to have once taken his meal beneath a myrobalan tree. This city later became known as "Phitsanulok."

Once the city was completed, the king ordered a stupa and a vihara to be built at its center, and commissioned craftsmen from Satchanalai and Hariphunchai to cast three bronze Buddha images: Phra Buddha Chinnasi, Phra Si Satsada, and Phra Buddha Chinnarat. The first two were cast successfully, but Phra Buddha Chinnarat had to be recast again and again. Only on the fourth attempt did the casting succeed, through the power of Indra. As the Northern Chronicle records: "On the eighth day of the waxing moon, in the Year of the Pig ... in the Buddhist Era 1500 ... by the power of Lord Indra, the molten metal flowed completely and perfectly, without any flaw."

This legend reflects the great merit of King Si Thammatraipidok and his devotion to Buddhism. It also sets Phra Buddha Chinnarat apart from the two images cast alongside it, as its completion was attributed to the power of Indra rather than the skill of ordinary human craftsmen. Beyond this version, other accounts exist in the royal writings of King Rama IV and King Rama V, with details that vary according to the social and political context of each era.

Phra Buddha Chinnarat has continued to be venerated by Thai monarchs throughout the ages. It is said that during the Ayutthaya period, after his victory in the campaign at Hongsawadi (Pegu), King Naresuan the Great came to pay homage to the image and removed his royal regalia to offer as a gift of worship. Later, King Ekathotsarot, upon concluding his campaigns against the Mon and the Khmer, likewise came to pay homage and ordered pure gold from the royal regalia to be beaten into gold leaf to gild the image. This devotion continued into the Rattanakosin period, when King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) traveled to Phitsanulok in 1901 to preside over the casting of a replica of Phra Buddha Chinnarat.