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What is it: Wat Mangkon Kamalawat – or Wat Leng Noei Yi as the local Chinese-Thai community still calls it – has been drawing devotees since 1871. The temple was founded as a Mahayana Buddhist temple and later given its current name, meaning ‘Dragon Lotus Temple’, by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). It is built in a classic Chinese architectural style with sweeping tiled roofs decorated with animal and floral motifs, including ubiquitous Chinese dragons and around the temple there are shrines dedicated to a variety of Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian deities.
What to manifest: Health, prosperity, longevity and the clearing of bad luck accumulated over the past year – Songkran's essential brief.
Time Out tip: One of the most interesting practices here is 'kau cim', a traditional form of Chinese fortune-telling in which you shake a canister of numbered sticks until one falls out, then take the corresponding fortune slip to an interpreter nearby. Other practices include pasting gold leaf onto statues for merit, offering fruits and candles and burning incense at the main hall's three Chinese-style Buddha images. The MRT stop is called Wat Mangkon – could not be easier to reach.
423 Charoen Krung Rd, Samphanthawong. MRT Wat Mangkon. Daily, 6am-6pm.