Big Buddha Hill, Pattaya: Wat Phra Yai and the Pratumnak Viewpoint
Between Pattaya Beach and Jomtien, on the wooded ridge of Pratumnak Hill, sits the image most Pattaya postcards forget: an 18-metre golden Buddha looking out over the bay. Wat Phra Yai — Big Buddha Hill — is an active temple, not a ticketed attraction, and together with the Pattaya City viewpoint five minutes away on the same hill it makes the best free half-morning in the city. The Temple and the Big Buddha The temple dates to the 1940s, when Pattaya was still a fishing town. The Big Buddha, built in 1977 and officially named Phra Buddha Sukhothai Walai Chonlathan (locals call him Luang Pho Yai), is the largest Buddha image in Chonburi province, about 18 metres tall and seated in the Mara-subduing posture roughly 100 metres above sea level. You reach the terrace up a broad staircase flanked by two long golden naga serpents — seven-headed snakes that run the full length of the handrails. At the top, a terrace rings the main image with smaller Buddha statues in different postures, on...