Legends have it that many years back, a boy was grazing his buffalo in an open field. On the pasture ground, he happened to see a protruding object looking like a post. He tied the rope of his buffalo on the protruding piece. What followed is that the boy fell very ill and died. His buffalo too died which made his father become curious. When the poor father went to check on the post, he discovered that it was the uppermost part of a buried Buddha image.
Villagers got curious and started digging it out to free the statue. The story gets more interesting by explaining that the diggers were attacked by swarms that came out from the excavated area. Many people became ill and died.
Having believed that the image hailed from China, Burmese soldiers tried to dig out the statue to take it back to its origin. The process was not successful since they were attacked and bitten by swarms. So many of them got sick and died. This left the Buddha image only exposed at the head and shoulders.
It was only later in the year 1750 that a monk convinced the villagers that it was a good idea to build a temple around the Buddha image. As it is today, the Buddha statue was reestablished with the head shielded with a new image for religious purposes. This explains the perfect condition of the image and it was named the statue Luangpho Phra Phut. This simply means a Buddha that arises from the ground.
Today Wat Phra Thong grounds houses several temples and is a famous spiritual center for the local communities since then.
Another tourist attraction is an interesting museum full with historical items found within the temple.
