Three brick towers on one laterite base in the hills of Non Din Daeng, built in two phases, and the sanctuary a looted lintel came home to in 2021 after half a century in a San Francisco museum.
ปราสาทหนองหงส์ · Prasat Nong Hong
| Official name | ปราสาทหนองหงส์ — Prasat Nong Hong |
|---|---|
| Where | Som Poi, Non Din Daeng, Buriram |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Not established. |
| Coordinates | 14.302318, 102.760589 ONEP cultural-environment register, site 1772 — checked against Non Din Daeng district, 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 founding instrument, no inscription and no named patron were found for this sanctuary, and the page carries no founding date. A second dating conflict is recorded in the open questions: the state tourism-development agency DASTA describes the ornament as Bayon in style, which is a later period than the register gives, and the two have not been reconciled here.
Prasat Nong Hong stands in Non Din Daeng district in the far south of Buriram, close to the Dangrek range and the border. It is small by the standards of Phanom Rung and it has none of the visitor infrastructure, but it is architecturally legible in a way many ruined sanctuaries are not, because the ONEP cultural-environment register has recorded its two building phases and its measurements.
The first phase is three brick towers on a continuous laterite base, facing east, the central one larger than the two flanking it. The register gives the central sanctuary as seven metres by seven on its stone platform and each of the flanking towers as five by five. The second phase added a mandapa in front, a library building of eight metres by twelve, a gateway and a stone enclosure wall measuring thirty-six metres by forty and standing two metres thirty high, with gateways to the east and the west. A moat runs around the outside. The register places the first phase in the late Baphuon period and the second in the early Angkor Wat period, which is to say the towers went up first and the compound grew around them over the following century or so.
The Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration, which promotes community-based tourism at the site, describes the three lintels that belong to the towers: the northern tower carrying Vishnu on Garuda above a kala face, the central one Indra on his elephant, and the southern one Shiva on his bull. It also, in the same description, calls the ornament Bayon in style — a later period than the register's dating — and this page does not print that attribution, because the two cannot both be right and no third state source was available to settle it.
What made the name known nationally is a theft and a return. A lintel from Prasat Nong Hong left Thailand decades ago and ended up on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, alongside a second lintel taken from Prasat Khao Lon in Sa Kaeo province. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning recorded on 21 March B.E. 2564 (2021) that both lintels were in the process of being returned, with a formal handover expected that May, and that further objects were being negotiated for alongside them. The two lintels came home. It was one of the first high-profile repatriations of its kind to Thailand and it is the reason a small sanctuary in a border district has a national profile.
The Fine Arts Department's Regional Office 10 in Nakhon Ratchasima maintains a page for this monument. It could not be opened from this run — the department's web hosts refused every request — and its register entry, its gazette citation and its protected area are therefore not on this page.
Three brick towers on one continuous laterite base, facing east, the central tower seven metres square on its platform and the two flanking towers five metres square.
A library building of eight by twelve metres, and a mandapa in front of the towers — both from the second building phase rather than the first.
The stone enclosure wall, thirty-six by forty metres and two metres thirty high, with gateways east and west, and the moat outside it.
The three carved lintels described by the state tourism-development agency: Vishnu on Garuda above a kala face on the northern tower, Indra on his elephant on the central tower, Shiva on his bull on the southern one.
Morning or late afternoon light, which is what the agency itself recommends for the site.
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 | Non Din Daeng district, in the far south of Buriram towards the Dangrek range. The ONEP register places the monument in Tambon Som Poi; the Fine Arts Department's regional office gives Tambon Non Din Daeng. |
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. A lintel taken from Prasat Nong Hong spent decades on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, together with a second lintel removed from Prasat Khao Lon in Sa Kaeo province. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning recorded on 21 March B.E. 2564 that both were in the process of return, with the formal handover expected that May, and both came back. Which of the sanctuary's lintels it was is less settled than the fact of the return — see the open questions on this page.
There is no founding date, because no inscription or instrument naming a founder has been found here. The ONEP cultural-environment register dates it stylistically in two phases: three brick towers in the late Baphuon period, which it gives as B.E. 1550 to 1630, and then a mandapa, library, gateway and walls added in the early Angkor Wat period, B.E. 1650 to 1725. A state tourism agency describes the carving as Bayon, which is later; this guide prints the register's dating and flags the disagreement rather than splitting the difference.
The ONEP register records it as a Hindu foundation built in the Khmer tradition, and the three lintels described at the site — Vishnu on Garuda, Indra on his elephant, Shiva on his bull — are consistent with that. No source read for this page records a later conversion to Buddhist use. Buriram has sanctuaries that changed religion and sanctuaries that did not, and it is worth checking which before assuming.
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.