Wat Benja, the official name being ;lWat Benjama Bopit Dusit Wanaram Ratchaworawiharn, is one a most beautiful temples and a major tourist attraction in Bangkok. It also is called Marble Temple because it made of imported marbles from Italy in the reign of King Rama V.

           In 1898, King Chulalongkorn had plan of the construction of a new Royal Palace, thus His Majesty ordered to purchase the lands in the north of the Grand Palace and then started the improvement in 1899 continues until its completion. Within the precints of Dusit Palace, formerly there located two old temples, King Rama V decided to restore is completely in order to compensate for the destruction of two old temples during the making of the nearby Dusit Palace. The name was then changed into “Wat Benchamabopitr”, meaning the temple of the Fifth King. ( Benchama = the fifth, and bopitr (Pali-Pavitta) implies the king or prince).

The main elements of the temple are as follows:

1. Ubosot

2. Gallery

1. Ubosot

           The Ubosot of Wat Benjama Bopit is one of the finest works of architectural arts of the Bangkok period. It is a structure of the four-gabled style, and forming a square enclosure that takes in the rear part of the Ubosot
           There are balustrades in front of the Ubosot. The boundary marker stones (Sema) are in the form of two posts with lotus bud tops placed at the two front corners of the boundary walls and two stone slabs inscribed with the Wheel of Truth (Dhammachak) placed in the enclosed terrace at the back of the Ubosotl.
           Nearby a pair of marble lions guard the front entrance into the Ubosot. The outer walls of the Ubosot are decorated with the white square marbles. In the niche at the back of the Ubosot, there enshrinde the standing Buddha image in the attributes of royalty.
           The door panels have an embossed copper showing a celestial holding either a sword or a bow on the outward side. Windows panels also have an embossed copper showing the demon bearers on the outward side and the same picture in gold paint over a red background on the inward side.
           Over the window frames are the celestial debanom (a figure of a deva clasping hands in token of worship) and Thai traditional motifs in stained glass. This work was the contribution of Prince Chulacakrapongse who commissioned Florentine artists to produce it to designs sent from Bangkok in 1954.
           On the Ubosot, there enshrined Phra Buddhajinaraja as the main Buddha centered at the backward of the hall. The Buddha sits on the throne high equal to the lower frame of the windows. In front of the Buddha, there is a balustrade made of Jade coloured marble. Beneath the Buddha's throne, there interred the ashes of King Rama V.

2. Gallery

 

           The gallery extends from both sides of the Ubosot to form a square enclosure that takes in the rear part of the Ubosot with open larger ground at the middle. The whole design conform to the symmetry and the proportions of the layout of the Ubosot.
           The ground in the rear part of the Ubosot was floored with light pink and grey granite slabs, while the ground of the cloister floored with light yellow and white marble slabs.

           At the cloister of the Ubosot, there enshrined fifty-two Buddha images from verious places both in and outside the country. Most of them are ancient Buddha images of different attitudes and styles with exception of some of them cast from the original models in enlarged, reduced or equal sizes.
           Besides, outside the wall of the cloister, there enshrined four standing stone Buddha images under the niches below the south and the north gables each in a niche. They are t wo of the Dvaravati period taken from Lopburi enshrined below the south gables; and one of the Amaravati period taken from Sri Lanka, another of the Ayutthaya period taken from Lopburi, the later two of them enshrined below the north gables.

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