Big Buddha Phuket

A 45 m seated Buddha faced in white Burmese marble, overlooking Phuket from a hilltop.

The statue is 45 metres (148 feet) tall and 25.45 metres (83.5 feet) wide. It is made of concrete and covered with white Burmese marble. It is the main Buddha of the temple Wat Kitthi Sankaram and shows Gautama, the Buddha, in the seated pose called Maravichai. It is the third-tallest statue in Thailand, behind only the Great Buddha of Thailand and Luangpho Yai.

How it was built

Construction began in 2004. Work on the base was still going on in 2015, and by 2017 about 80 percent of the project was done. The cost was about 30 million baht, paid mostly from donations. It was built legally inside a national conserved forest, with approval from Thailand's Royal Forest Department.

What the name means

The long official name blends Thai, Sanskrit and Pali words. It means roughly "The Cherished Auspicious Lord Buddha atop Nāga Hill". Phra Phutta means Lord Buddha, Ming Mongkol means cherished and auspicious, and Eknakagiri means atop Naga Hill.

A treasure of Phuket

In 2008 the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, Somdet Phra Yanasangwon, declared the statue the "Buddhist Treasure of Phuket". From its hilltop you can look out over the island and the sea, and the white statue is easy to spot from many parts of the southern end of the island.

On the globe

The model shows the large white seated Buddha on its hilltop. Look at the seated pose and the white marble.