A small Khmer brick and sandstone sanctuary on the crater rim of Khao Kradong above Buriram town, registered in the national list of 1935, later turned into a shrine for a replica Buddha footprint.
ปราสาทเขากระโดง · Prasat Khao Kradong
| Official name | ปราสาทเขากระโดง — Prasat Khao Kradong |
|---|---|
| Where | Samet, Mueang Buriram, Buriram |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument ราชกิจจานุเบกษา เล่ม ๕๒ ตอนที่ ๗๕, ๘ มีนาคม ๒๔๗๘, protected area ๑ ไร่ ๖๐ ตารางวา As recorded by the ONEP cultural-environment register, which carries the citation and the area. The gazette instrument itself was not opened for this page and the Fine Arts Department register returned HTTP 403 throughout this run. This is the same national list of 8 March B.E. 2478 that carries Phanom Rung and Prasat Mueang Tam. |
| Coordinates | 14.940460, 103.093070 ONEP cultural-environment register, site 1707 — checked against Tambon Samet, Mueang Buriram, which it falls inside |
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.
No year, no patron and no inscription are on record for the original building, and the register's 'before the Sukhothai period' is as precise as this page can honestly be. The Chakri-period Buddhist re-use is dated only to that period, not to a year.
Khao Kradong is the volcano that overlooks Buriram town, five kilometres or so from the centre, and the forest park on it is the closest thing the provincial capital has to a public landscape. On the crater rim, inside that park, stands a small ancient sanctuary that most people walk past on their way to the large modern Buddha image above.
The ONEP cultural-environment register records it as pre-Sukhothai and describes what it originally was: a sandstone structure on a single stone base four metres square, with four openings. That is a compact Khmer-tradition sanctuary, of the kind that stood in the hundreds across this plateau, and its position on a crater rim repeats at small scale what Phanom Rung does at large scale fifty kilometres to the south.
It did not survive intact. The register notes that as the structure deteriorated it was rebuilt in stacked stone in a way that departed from the original configuration — which is the honest way to describe a great many restored monuments in Thailand, and is worth saying out loud. What a visitor sees is not the original fabric arranged as it originally stood.
Then, in the Chakri period, it changed religion. The Sinhaseni family installed a replica of a Buddha footprint inside the sanctuary and built a pavilion over it to protect it. A Khmer sanctuary became a Buddhist shrine, and the building is now visited as one. That transfer is on the record here in a way it is not at Phanom Rung, which was never converted, and the two pages together are the clearest illustration in this guide of the difference.
The sanctuary was registered as a national ancient monument in the announcement of 8 March B.E. 2478 (1935) — the same national list that carries Phanom Rung and Prasat Mueang Tam — with a protected area of 1 ไร่ 60 ตารางวา. The much larger modern seated Buddha image on the hill, Phra Suphattharabophit, is a separate thing entirely and has no state source read for this page; it does not have a page in this guide and it is not what is described above.
A small sanctuary on the crater rim, originally sandstone on a single stone base four metres square with four openings, now standing in a stacked-stone rebuilding that does not follow the original arrangement.
A replica Buddha footprint inside it, installed in the Chakri period by the Sinhaseni family, under the shelter built to protect it.
The crater of Khao Kradong itself, and the forest park around it.
Buriram town below — this is the closest ancient monument to the provincial capital and the easiest in the province to reach without a car.
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 | A Buddhist shrine within a public forest park. Shoulders and knees covered, and shoes off where the signs ask for it. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Samet, Mueang Buriram district, inside Khao Kradong Forest Park on the crater rim, a few kilometres from the centre of Buriram town. |
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.
No, and they are constantly confused. Prasat Khao Kradong is a small ancient sanctuary on the crater rim, registered as a national ancient monument in 1935 with a protected area of 1 rai 60 square wa. The large modern seated image higher up the hill, Phra Suphattharabophit, is a separate twentieth-century work; no state source read for this page covers it, so this guide does not describe it or date it.
It is Buddhist now and it was not built as what it is today, but the record read for this page does not say what it was originally. The ONEP cultural-environment register places the structure before the Sukhothai period and names no deity. What the register does record is the change: in the Chakri period the Sinhaseni family installed a replica Buddha footprint inside the sanctuary and built a shelter over it. In a province full of Khmer Hindu foundations that were later taken into Buddhist use, the original dedication here is a real open question rather than a safe assumption.
Partly. The register records the sanctuary as originally sandstone on a single four-metre-square stone base with four openings, and then records that as it deteriorated it was rebuilt in stacked stone in a way that departed from the original configuration. So the site is ancient and registered, and the arrangement of the stones is not the ancient one. This guide says that rather than letting a restored building pass for an intact one.
It is the easiest ancient monument in the province to reach — a few kilometres from the centre of Buriram, in Tambon Samet, inside Khao Kradong Forest Park, with a road up the hill. Phanom Rung, Prasat Mueang Tam and Wat Khao Phra Angkhan are all an hour or more to the south and need a car or a tour.
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 Buriram’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.