The future Rama I took the Emerald Buddha from conquered Vientiane, and it has stayed in Bangkok for two centuries

The chronicle of the First Reign of Bangkok tells the image's history. In 796 of the Chula era, 1434 AD, lightning struck an old stupa in Chiang Rai. Townspeople found a gilded Buddha inside and took it for an ordinary stone image. Months later the plaster flaked off the nose and showed green stone underneath. The ruler of Chiang Mai sent elephants to fetch it. The chronicle says the elephant turned toward Lampang three times at the fork in the road, so the image stayed in Lampang for 32 years before Chiang Mai took it. A Chiang Mai ruler later went to Luang Prabang and did not return; the image went with him and then to Vientiane, where it stayed 215 years. In 1778, by the chronicle's dating, the commander Chao Phraya Mahakasatsuek, the future Rama I, conquered the Lao towns as far as Vientiane and brought the image to Thonburi. As king he built a temple for it inside his new palace. In 1784 it was carried across the river in a royal barge procession and installed in Wat Phra Si Rattanasatsadaram. He returned a second captured Lao image, the Phra Bang, when he sent Chao Nanthasen back to rule Lan Chang. The Emerald Buddha was not returned. It is in Wat Phra Kaew in the Grand Palace in 2026.