This serene Buddha head entwined in tree roots is one of Thailand’s most iconic sights.
The Buddha head is in 14th century temple Wat Mahathat, in the city of Ayutthaya.
Nobody knows how the Buddha head became tangled in the roots of this tree.
One theory is that the tree grew around the Buddha head when the temple was vandalised during an invasion by the Burmese army in 1767.
Other historians speculate that the head was picked up by a thief in the early 1900s, when the temple was regularly raided by treasure hunters.
As the head is heavy, a thief may have abandoned it not far from the entrance of Wat Mahathat, when they realised they couldn’t carry it any further.
But, whatever the real story is, the Buddha head is an essential stop for anyone exploring Thailand’s ancient temples.
