The temple Chao Sam Phraya raised over his brothers' cremation ground — and the crypt beneath its prang, which gave up the largest gold hoard ever found in Thailand and built a national museum with the proceeds.
วัดราชบูรณะ · Wat Ratchaburana
| Official name | วัดราชบูรณะ — Wat Ratchaburana |
|---|---|
| Where | Tha Wasukri, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Carried in the national monument register; gazette announcement unread No Royal Gazette announcement naming this temple was found. It sits inside the 1,810-rai archaeological zone that the Fine Arts Department had declared over the whole island in B.E. 2519, and inside the batch of island monuments the department says were registered in B.E. 2478, but neither act was read at source: the Royal Gazette refused every request throughout this research. ONEP dates the island-wide declaration to 17 August B.E. 2519 and the Fine Arts Department's own park history dates it to 27 July B.E. 2519, and we could not tell which is correct. |
| World Heritage | Historic City of Ayutthaya (576) |
Tha Wasukri, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya
The exact location has not been confirmed yet.
Thai temple histories mix two different kinds of statement, and this guide keeps them apart. What a register, a gazette entry, an inscription or a dated royal act shows is one thing. What the chronicles and the temple itself hold is another, and it is worth telling as what it is.
The duel and the year come from the chronicle tradition rather than from any inscription or excavation report found in this research, and no state source consulted says which recension of the Ayutthaya chronicle carries the story. What the ground has produced instead is the crypt: the gold, the tablets and the paintings, none of which carries a date of foundation.
Wat Ratchaburana faces Wat Mahathat across the road at the foot of the Pa Than bridge, and the two burned together in 1767. The chronicle explains why it is here at all. Somdet Phra Borommarachathirat II, remembered as Chao Sam Phraya, was the third son; his two elder brothers, Chao Ai Phraya and Chao Yi Phraya, met on elephant-back at the bridge to settle which of them would take the throne, and killed each other. The third son took it instead, and built this temple over the place where they were burned, with two chedis for them. The Fine Arts Department and the Tourism Authority both give B.E. 1967 for the building and neither names the chronicle recension the story comes from.
What made the temple famous is what was underneath it. In late B.E. 2499 thieves tunnelled into the crypt of the principal prang. Some were caught, and the Fine Arts Department went in after them. The provincial government's account puts the recovery at more than two thousand objects and over a hundred kilograms of gold, with votive tablets in the hundreds of thousands; the department's own park page describes gold royal regalia, votive images of many kinds and a great quantity of other valuables without giving a count. The Chao Sam Phraya National Museum's history records the rest in careful, bureaucratic detail: on 23 November 1957 the recovered antiquities were shown to the King and Queen at the police station, and a further chamber packed with tablets was found on 10 December 1958.
Then something unusual happened. Rather than sell the duplicates, the Ministry of Education authorised the Fine Arts Department to have new tablets made from the crypt's finds and to accept donations from the public in exchange for them — the standard Thai transaction, in which one does not buy an amulet but rents it for veneration. The scheme raised 3,461,928 baht and 22 satang. The museum built with that money opened on 26 December B.E. 2504 and is named after the king who built the temple. Nearly everything from the crypt is in it, which is why the temple you walk through is empty and the objects that made it famous are two kilometres away.
The crypt is still there and you can go down into it. The Fine Arts Department installed a stair so that the public can see the paintings, which is a rarer thing than it sounds: these are early-Ayutthaya murals showing Chinese influence, and they are the specific evidence UNESCO's inscription text points to when it argues for the authenticity of the whole property. The Tourism Authority describes two levels — an upper chamber whose paintings have faded, and the lower chamber where the gold was kept, painted in vermilion and gold leaf with walking and meditating Buddhas, devas and flowers.
The principal prang, in the early-Ayutthaya manner that borrows the Khmer arrangement of a prang as the temple's centre. The Tourism Authority records a standing stucco Buddha set in each niche of the prang, and stucco garuda, yaksha, deva and naga on the body of it.
The crypt, in two levels, reached by the stair the Fine Arts Department built. The upper chamber's murals are faint; the lower one, which held the gold, carries walking and meditating Buddhas painted in vermilion and gold leaf, with devas and flowers among them. UNESCO's inscription text names these paintings by temple as evidence of the property's authenticity.
The royal vihara, which the Tourism Authority measures at 63 metres long and 20 metres wide, with three flights of steps at the front and windows cut into the walls. The columns and the pedestal of the principal image survive.
The two chedis the chronicle says Chao Sam Phraya raised on the spot where his brothers were cremated.
Nothing of the treasure. The gold regalia, the votive tablets and the images are at the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum, which exists because of them.
This is a working place of worship for millions of people rather than an attraction, and it is treated as one at the gate. Where a figure below is blank, no source we are prepared to cite states it.
| Hours | Tickets are sold 08:00–17:00 and the site stays open until 18:00, per the Tourism Authority of Thailand's Thai-language listing. |
|---|---|
| Admission | Thai nationals: 10 baht. Foreign visitors: 80 baht. |
| Dress | Not established from an official source. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On the island at the foot of the Pa Than bridge, directly opposite Wat Mahathat. The crypt is reached by a stair inside the prang and is narrow and low. The Ayutthaya Historical Park office answers on 0 3524 2286. |
Every temple reference repeats claims nobody has checked. These are the ones we went looking for and could not stand up, listed so you know exactly where this page stops.
Yes. The Fine Arts Department built a stair specifically so that the public can descend and see the paintings, and its own park guide says so. The Tourism Authority describes two chambers: an upper one whose murals have faded badly, and the lower one that held the gold, painted in vermilion and gold leaf with walking and meditating Buddha figures, devas and flowers. It is narrow, low and hot, and it is the only place in Ayutthaya where you can stand inside a prang.
It is at the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum in Ayutthaya, which was built for it. After thieves broke into the crypt in late B.E. 2499 the Fine Arts Department excavated it, and the museum's own history records that the recovered antiquities were shown to the King and Queen on 23 November 1957. Newly made votive tablets were given to the public in exchange for donations, raising 3,461,928 baht and 22 satang, and the museum that money built opened on 26 December B.E. 2504.
According to the Ayutthaya chronicle, as repeated by the Fine Arts Department and the Tourism Authority, King Borommarachathirat II — Chao Sam Phraya — raised it in B.E. 1967 over the ground where his two elder brothers were cremated. The brothers, Chao Ai Phraya and Chao Yi Phraya, had met on elephant-back at the Pa Than bridge to decide the succession between them and killed each other in the fight, which left the throne to the third son. Neither state source names the chronicle recension that carries the story.
No, and the confusion is common enough to be worth stating. Bangkok has a Wat Ratchaburana Ratchaworawihan, usually called Wat Liap, at the Phra Pok Klao bridge; it is a functioning royal monastery of the early Bangkok period and is not a ruin. The Ayutthaya temple is an unoccupied fifteenth-century monument inside the historical park, in Tha Wasukri subdistrict, and the two share nothing but a name.
Before you go, read the guide to Buddhism and temple etiquette in Thailand — dress, footwear, where photography is not welcome and how to behave around monks. The rest of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya’s temples are covered here too.
Every temple here sits in a place worth reading about on its own terms. The nationwide temple guide covers the other provinces to the same documentary standard as this page, and says on each one what the record establishes and what it does not.
If you are thinking about more than a visit: work out which Thai visa route fits your situation, and see what is available to rent and buy in residences across Thailand.
Every fact on this page is drawn from the sources above. Where they disagree, this page says so rather than choosing silently. Registrations, fees, hours and access change; confirm anything you are relying on with the authority concerned. BAANLYY LLC is a Nevada company and a listing portal, does not represent any temple, and offers no legal or religious advice.