History of the gold Buddha
The origin of the huge Buddha image is not exactly known. Because of its style it is assumed that it was cast during the Sukhothai era, the Kingdom that existed from 1238 until 1438 with the city of Sukhothai in Northern Thailand as its centre. After the demise of Sukhothai and the rise of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1350 - 1767), the statue was probably moved to a temple in Ayutthaya. In 1767 Ayutthaya was destroyed by Burmese invaders. At some point before that, the Golden Buddha image was covered with a plaster coating, most likely in order to disguise it and prevent it from being stolen by the Burmese.