The Emerald Buddha: Its Mysteries and Chronicles

By Corrie Lamprecht

In the Royal Palace of Bangkok is one of the most revered Buddhist images in the entire world. This book is the folklore and actual history of this image. From the time it was sculptured in 43BCE, the amazing journeys through Asia and the strange incidents around this image. From India to the fabled Land of Gold – Suvarnabhumi
There were disasters at sea; there were wars and the desires of Kings.
There were those who desired the image, yet never even had the honour to see it.
Through the ages this image of the Emerald Buddha did indeed had a mind-set of its own.
“The truth is stranger than Fiction”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Corrie Lamprecht
• Release date: Jun 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310161223

Corrie Lamprecht

Born and bred in the old South Africa during the month of Sagittarius in the year of 1956. Although I am fairly Sag; the Chinese sign of Monkey with Fire element is really more descriptive. Nowadays I am no more horse and arrow; I am proud to be from the family of Ophiuchus. In this modern time what better area to have in your sign than the centre our Galaxy and holding the Control over the Snake! I live in Thailand where I had a yacht factory. My two sons are here with their families - hey I am the proud grandfather of none less than three grandsons and two grand daughters. My one son has taken the Yacht Chandlery and turned it into a very big successful business. www.asap-marine.com The other took over the yacht factory and turned that in a very big international acclaimed factory - www.bakricono.com. My Ex is in South Africa with a new live in her heart and there my two daughters are still enjoying the Sunny South with rainbow colours. In South Africa this grandpa has a pretty little granddaughter too! Now I am retired. Well, sort of. I am writing books, this is sometimes a 16 hour per day job doing research and getting the words typed into the computer. Soon I think I will start writing fiction. Sounds much easier than this non-fiction fact finding. Though I love the self education!

Book preview

The Emerald Buddha

Its Mysteries and Chronicles.

© 2016 Corrie Lamprecht.

Published by: Corrie Lamprecht.

Website: www.corrie-books.com

Introduction

In the Royal Palace of Bangkok, Thailand is one of the most revered images in the world. ‘The Emerald Buddha’ and its history stretched over more than 2,000 years. This is an easy to read historical presentation about this image; its journeys, the places it has been and the people influenced by it.

Notes from the author.

I have been living in Thailand since 2000 and the first three years I stayed in Bangkok. On two occasions, I visited the Royal Palace and temples there but nothing really took my fancy. It was only many years later when I was in Siem Reap, Cambodia at the Angkor Wat temples where I learned about some of the folklore, that my interest was really awakened in the history of South East Asia. So many things are ‘known’ but not really known. There is a lot of history here that is becoming forgotten, mostly because it does not fit into the wish list of those who write the history books today. A very rich history with so many amazing folklores.

Over the past few years I have set off on an amazing series of discoveries and I am sad to see much of these wonderful historical incidents are being lost and forgotten; rapidly. There are fantastic stories about the first people that lived in this region over 3,000 years ago. The story of how this land came up from the sea, magical rulers that could change between being human and serpent. There are stories of love, war, honour and creation. Then in more recent times there are the stories of two boys that were doing amazing healings, caused great harvests, taught the people about medicine, astronomy, metalwork’s, the arts of singing, dancing and sculpture.

There is the folklore of a magical sword; I have reason to believe it is in fact none other than the Royal Victory Sword of Thailand. Then there are the myths, stories – and history – of the Emerald Buddha.

I hope you will enjoy this booklet; but it is more than just the story. A lot of hard work has gone into getting historical data sorted out and recording it into an unbiased objective view.

In my research, I had to get antique French documents in Laos dug up by my friends and translated to English. I even found references to a Japanese travel journal from an Angkor era trader that finally got me the proof that the Emerald Buddha was actually located in Angkor for some time. I had a problem to find how the Emerald Buddha came to be in Sri Lanka; eventually I met an Indian researcher on line who supplied me with that very interesting history.

The result is a series of amazing events stretching over more than 1,800 years from North West India through Sri Lanka to Cambodia and finally Bangkok. Reading this completed work I can sit back and say, The truth is stranger than fiction.

In this presentation, I will mostly use the current names of locations; unless they are unclear in relation to the old period name. Where I needed to use the old location names I posted maps. Measurements in the Metric system, where applicable converted from the various systems used in ancient times. Dates are all converted to the current Gregorian / European calendar; in