Bangkok/Things to do/ culture
Wat Suthat and the Giant Swing
A first-class royal temple founded under Rama I, with murals worth the entry, behind the red teak frame of the Giant Swing. 100 baht for a foreign visitor.
What we checked
Checked on 21 September 2026. The prices and hours come from a Thai government tourism portal, named above, rather than from the temple, which publishes no page we could read. The ban on the swinging ceremony in 1932 is widely documented and comes from the same source. We have not been.
Verified via. The Thai government's official host site for the 2026 IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings (am2026thailand.go.th), page dated 15 August 2025, read on 21 September 2026: "Thai nationals: Free; Foreign visitors: 100 THB", with the museum priced separately and the hours above. OpenStreetMap carries the temple as node 3036908342 at 13.7502, 100.5003.
Admission
From ฿100. 100 baht for a foreign visitor, free for Thai nationals. The Supreme Patriarch's Residence Museum inside the compound is charged separately, at 200 baht for international visitors and 50 for Thai visitors.
The Giant Swing stands in the road outside, a red teak frame 21 metres high with nothing hanging from it. Until 1932 men swung from it on a rope to catch a bag of coins in their teeth, as part of a Brahmin ceremony. Enough of them died that it was stopped, and the frame has been a monument ever since.
You do not have to pay to see it. The swing is on Bamrung Mueang Road, outside the temple wall. Photograph it from the street and walk on, if that is all you came for.
The temple behind it is the better reason to stop. Wat Suthat’s viharn is one of the largest in Bangkok and its walls are covered in murals, and because it is not on the river circuit it is usually close to empty. The bronze Buddha inside came down from Sukhothai by barge in the reign of Rama I.
The museum is a separate ticket. The Supreme Patriarch’s Residence Museum in the compound costs 200 baht for an international visitor, on top of the 100, and opens only Friday to Sunday.
Bamrung Mueang Road outside is the street of Buddhist supply shops: monks’ robes, alms bowls and Buddha images up to three metres tall, which is worth the walk in itself. Shoulders and knees covered inside.
Best for
Murals and a huge, calm viharn ten minutes from the Grand Palace
Skip if
You only want the Giant Swing photograph, which is free from the street
Where it actually is
Bamrung Mueang Road, Sao Chingcha, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok
Old Town, Bangkok
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.View larger map
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