PHUKET'S Big Buddha is already a huge success as a tourist attraction, bringing 500 to 1000 people up the hill in Chalong and receiving donations of at least 100,000 baht a day.
Gifts by enchanted visitors can rise even higher. A Thai woman from Patong who visited one day this week gave one million baht to the project.
Suporn Vanichkul, president of the construction foundation, says that from Monday to Friday, foreign tourists flock to the Big Buddha in greater numbers than Thais.
On the weekend, Thais outnumber farang. It's considered to be a good place to go to make merit.
A group of monks is now living at the base of the Big Buddha and praying and chanting there every day from 10.30am to noon with visitors.
Muslims and Christians as well as Buddhists are making the five-kilometre trip up the Nakkerd hill. Khun Suporn says meekwamsuk or happiness, usually comes with the experience.
Songkran is being celebrated on the hilltop for the first time this year.
From April 12 to April 16, traditional water ceremonies will take place each day. Visitors are invited to attend.
The Big Buddha rises to 45 metres and there are superb views to both sides of the island from the 380 metre hill.
Scheduled for completion in 2009, the concrete statue will eventually be covered in Burmese jade and is the tallest sitting buddha in Thailand.
There's an access road off Chaofa Road West about one kilometre from Chalong Circle.
Gifts by enchanted visitors can rise even higher. A Thai woman from Patong who visited one day this week gave one million baht to the project.
Suporn Vanichkul, president of the construction foundation, says that from Monday to Friday, foreign tourists flock to the Big Buddha in greater numbers than Thais.
On the weekend, Thais outnumber farang. It's considered to be a good place to go to make merit.
A group of monks is now living at the base of the Big Buddha and praying and chanting there every day from 10.30am to noon with visitors.
Muslims and Christians as well as Buddhists are making the five-kilometre trip up the Nakkerd hill. Khun Suporn says meekwamsuk or happiness, usually comes with the experience.
Songkran is being celebrated on the hilltop for the first time this year.
From April 12 to April 16, traditional water ceremonies will take place each day. Visitors are invited to attend.
The Big Buddha rises to 45 metres and there are superb views to both sides of the island from the 380 metre hill.
Scheduled for completion in 2009, the concrete statue will eventually be covered in Burmese jade and is the tallest sitting buddha in Thailand.
There's an access road off Chaofa Road West about one kilometre from Chalong Circle.
