Head of giant reclining Buddha statue breaks off at Chiang Mai temple

The head of a giant 60-metre-long cement reclining Buddha statue at a much-respected temple in Chiang Mai’s Doi Saket district broke off early on Friday after days of heavy rain.

Initially, the abbot of Wat Phra That Doi Saket tried to withhold the incident from the public by building a tall wall of canvas to hide the broken Buddha statue. But a Facebook user who called himself Khon Lanna posted a picture of the broken head of the reclining Buddha on Sunday morning, prompting reporters to rush to the temple.

Monks and novices in the temple said the incident happened at 5.30am on Friday. The fall of the giant head of the statue hit the ground causing a very loud noise, prompting the monks and novices to come out to see what had happened.

The temple explained that it didn’t want the news to be spread for fear that local people would take it as a bad omen.

The temple started building the giant Buddha statue in 2020, and the construction was done in the middle of this year. The reclining Buddha statue was 59.99 metres long.

 

The temple performed a rite to bless the statue on Thursday before it was broken the following day.

Monks said heavy rain might have caused the cement head to accumulate too much water and weight, causing it to break off.