[2] Phu Khao Thong (“Golden Mountain”, ภูเขาทอง) is a steep artificial hill inside the Wat Saket compound.

[8] An annual festival is held at Wat Saket every November, featuring a candlelight procession up Phu Khao Thong to the chedi,[9] which is wrapped in a long red robe (similar to "Hae Pha Khuen That" (แห่ผ้าขึ้นธาตุ) festival of Wat Phra Mahathat, Nakhon Si Thammarat province in southern Thailand.

This festival has been observed since the reign of King Rama V.[10] At the same time, a great Loi Krathong festival takes place at the temple, along with freak shows such as Phi Krasue ("floating female ghost head with glowing viscera dangling below", ผีกระสือ), Dek Song Hua ("two-headed child", เด็กสองหัว), Mia Ngu ("snake's wife", เมียงู), or fun games Sao Noi Tok Nam ("little girl falling into water", สาวน้อยตกน้ำ) etc.

Wat Saket was outside the city walls, so it was often used as a place to cremate dead bodies, which were carried through the Pratu Phi or 'ghost gate'.

In 1820, during the reign of King Rama II (1809–1824), cholera spread from Penang to Bangkok, leading to more than 30,000 deaths in the capital.

The temple became the main food court for vultures, and there were outbreaks of cholera every dry season until the early reign of King Rama V. The severest outbreak was in 1840 during the reign of King Rama III when one in ten people in Siam and the surrounding areas were killed by the disease.