The monastery where a monk-prince reformed Thai Buddhism from the inside, held the abbacy for fourteen years, and then left it to be crowned Rama IV.
วัดบวรนิเวศวิหารราชวรวิหาร · Wat Bowonniwet Wihan Ratchaworawihan
| Official name | วัดบวรนิเวศวิหารราชวรวิหาร — Wat Bowonniwet Wihan Ratchaworawihan |
|---|---|
| Where | Not established, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok |
| Royal temple class | First class royal temple, Ratchaworawihan (พระอารามหลวงชั้นเอก ชนิดราชวรวิหาร) The Bureau of the Royal Household's coronation site states the grade in those words, first class, in setting out the temple's place in the coronation procession. The sub-rank is the one carried in the temple's own registered name rather than a separate reading of ours. Neither could be cross-checked against the National Office of Buddhism register, whose pages refused every request during research. |
| Monastic order | Dhammayuttika Nikaya |
| Ancient monument | Not established. |
Not established, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok
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.
We do not reconcile those two accounts, because no source we could read reconciles them. Both may be describing different things — a physical and administrative merger under Rama III, a later single registration under Rama VI — but that would be our inference and not anybody's record. No foundation date for either original monastery was found anywhere.
Wat Bowonniwet is the temple where the modern Thai sangha was argued into existence. Prince Mongkut's objection was philological before it was doctrinal: he thought the ordination lineage and the observance he had inherited did not match what the Pali canon actually said. The Dhammayuttika order's own account states that a community following his stricter reading had formed by his sixth year as a monk, and that when he came to preside over Wat Bowonniwet in 2379, 1836, evidence appears of him establishing the order's customs there. He held the abbacy for fourteen years, two months and eight days by the temple's own register, and then left it to be crowned.
That gave the temple a peculiar double character it has never lost. It is a working monastery and it is also, in effect, a royal institution. The Public Relations Department records that Rama VI ordained here, and the Fine Arts Department's account of a commemorative medal quotes the medal's own inscription for Rama IX's ordination in 2499, 1956. Two further royal ordinations often attached to this temple, those of Rama VII and Rama X, we could not confirm from any source we are prepared to cite, and a Sukhothai Thammathirat university biography of Rama VII covering his education, service, reign and abdication mentions no ordination at all.
The abbots read like a list of the Thai sangha's leadership. After Mongkut came Kromphraya Pawaretwariyalongkorn, then Kromphraya Vajirananavarorasa, then Kromluang Vajirayanavongsa, and from 2504 to 2557 in the Buddhist era, Somdet Phra Yanasangwon — the Supreme Patriarch whose funeral rites the temple's own site is still largely given over to. That sequence is taken from the temple's register of abbots and we could not corroborate the ranges against a second government source.
The scholarly side of the reform is still on the site. Mahamakut Buddhist University, whose history page dates its establishment to 1 October 2436, 1893, by royal permission of Rama V, was set up here and remains here, reorganised under royal patronage on 30 December 2488 and beginning formal curriculum teaching on 16 September 2489. A monastery that produced a king, an order and a university is doing something other than tourism, which is worth knowing before you walk in.
Two principal images in the ordination hall rather than one, set one behind the other. The rear image is Phra Phuttha Suwannakhet, brought from Wat Sara Taphan in Phetchaburi; the front is Phra Phuttha Chinnasi, brought from the northern wihan of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat in Phitsanulok. Neither has an age or a date of removal we could establish.
The golden chedi, which a Fine Arts Department account confirms indirectly through a commemorative medal struck for a royal ceremony celebrating it on 29 August 1965. What is enshrined inside it we could not establish from any acceptable source, and we do not guess.
Mahamakut Buddhist University on the temple grounds, in use, which is the reason the compound feels like a campus as much as a monastery.
The murals in the ordination hall, which are the temple's most famous feature and also its least documented. See the open questions below before you read a caption about 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 | Not established from an official source. |
|---|---|
| Admission | Not established from an official source. |
| Dress | Not established from an official source. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | The temple stands on Phra Sumen Road in Phra Nakhon, at the Banglamphu end of the old city, a short walk from Khao San Road. The address is from the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre's museum database; the rest of the visiting picture is unverified below. |
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.
Rama IV is the certain one: he was a monk here for fourteen years, two months and eight days by the temple's own register of abbots, arriving on 11 January 2379 in the Buddhist era and leaving for the throne. The Public Relations Department records that Rama VI ordained here, and the Fine Arts Department quotes a commemorative medal's inscription for Rama IX's ordination in 2499, 1956. The ordinations of Rama VII and Rama X, often attached to this temple, we could not confirm from any acceptable source.
It is the reform order founded by Prince Mongkut before he became Rama IV, out of his conclusion that the ordination lineage and monastic observance he had inherited did not match the Pali canon. The order's own account states that a community following his stricter reading had formed by his sixth year as a monk, and that when he came to preside over Wat Bowonniwet in 1836 he established the order's customs there. The temple is the order's historic centre; we did not find it described as its headquarters in a sangha administrative document.
We cannot confirm it. The attribution is repeated almost everywhere, and it may well be correct, but the museum and university sources we could reach on that painter discuss his murals at Wat Boromniwat, which is a different temple with a confusingly similar name. Rather than pass along an attribution we have not seen in an art-historical source, this page records the murals as the temple's most famous and least documented feature and leaves the question open.
Yes. Mahamakut Buddhist University stands on the temple grounds and its own history page dates its establishment to 1 October 2436 in the Buddhist era, 1893, by royal permission of King Chulalongkorn. It was reorganised under royal patronage on 30 December 2488 as the Sangha Educational Council of Mahamakut Buddhist University, and formal curriculum-based teaching began on 16 September 2489. It is why the compound reads as much like a campus as a monastery.
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 Bangkok’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.
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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.