Although Phuket is known primarily as a resort destination tending to international guests, like the rest of Thailand, the island has its share of Buddhist temples or wats - 29, to be exact.
Of these, the two most often visited by locals and tourists alike are Wat Chalong and Wat Phra Thong.
As the island's largest monastery complex, Wat Chalong, also known as Celebration Temple, is considered to be Phuket's most sacred.
It also boasts the more interesting features and is of greater historic significance.
Healing Monks Wat is famous for its healing powers and Thai people from across the kingdom come here if they seek to regain spiritual or physical and spiritual power.
The temple's reputation as a healing center stems from the mid-nineteenth century when two herbalist monks, Luang Pho Chaem and Luang Pho Chuang, tended to the sick and injured of their community with great success.
Life-like effigies of the two monks, along with another deceased abbot of Wat Chalong are housed in a teakwood structure built just to the north of the complex's viharn (assembly hall).
Visitors who believe the images hold magical powers, pray to them seeking well-being.
Tin Rebellion: Luang Po Chuang and Luang Po Chaem are also famous for their success in stopping a rebellion of Haw Chinese immigrant tin miners in 1876.
Depending on sources, the monks either, "led the people of Phuket to fight against the immigrant Chinese influx for tin mining who wanted to capture the city in a E.
2419 (1876)," as indicated on a sign within the complex; or "served as mediators in the conflict" between tin minors dissatisfied with their horrendous working conditions and the Thai government.
Either way, the two are seen today as having been a force of good for the community and spoken of in conjunction with the Tin Miner's Rebellion.
Tin was first discovered a couple of millennia ago in the Kathu (central area) and it has been mined with varying seriousness and success until the year 1992 when the final mine on Phuket.
The ore were re-discovered during the reign of King Rama Ill and mining it quickly became a major source of wealth for Phuket.
Large numbers of Chinese immigrants took on the dangerous work of rending the tin from veins in the earth.
While Phuket remains one of the world's tin producers today, very few open mines remain on the main island as most is sourced offshore.
Chinese: Approximately 30% of Phuket's population is Chinese.
Most of these are the descendants of the Chinese tin miners.
Their religious community holds to a mix of Buddhism and Taoism, and their influences can be seen at Wat Chalong.
Temple Tour: Wat Chalong temple complex is located in the south of the island on Chao Fah Road West, about three kilometers north of the Chalong Circle intersection.
Architecturally speaking, the wat cannot be compared to some of Thailand's most magnificent temples found in Bangkok or the north but it does offer several interesting features worth a look.
Typically Thai in its design, there is an emphasis on bright colors, and a plenty of architectural detail.