A monastery the state register records as established in 1977, on the crater of an extinct volcano, standing among Dvaravati boundary stones cut from basalt — a material the state register calls an unusual one for sema in Thailand.
วัดเขาพระอังคาร · Wat Khao Phra Angkhan
| Official name | วัดเขาพระอังคาร — Wat Khao Phra Angkhan |
|---|---|
| Where | Charoen Suk, Chaloem Phra Kiat, 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 | 14.534677, 102.834654 ONEP cultural-environment register, site 5981 — checked against Tambon Charoen Suk, Chaloem Phra Kiat, 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.
A reader should not read the 1977 foundation as the age of the site or the sema stones as the age of the temple. The two are separated by more than a thousand years and the interest of the place is precisely that both are on the same hill.
Wat Khao Phra Angkhan sits on the crater of an extinct volcano in Tambon Charoen Suk, Chaloem Phra Kiat district, about eleven kilometres west of Phanom Rung on the next hill in the same volcanic line. The ONEP cultural-environment register describes the mountain as a plug dome formed in the Quaternary, roughly seven hundred thousand years ago, which makes the geology by far the oldest thing on this page.
Long before the present monastery, the hill was a Buddhist site. The register records boundary stones — sema — found here and assigns them to the Dvaravati period, dating them to around the 13th to 14th Buddhist centuries, which is to say something like thirteen hundred years ago. What makes them notable is the material: they are cut from basalt, which the register describes as an unusual find for sema in Thailand, and the volcano is the obvious reason why. They carry carved figures, stupas, lotus flowers and dharma wheels. Eight pairs of them stand in the temple compound today.
The monastery itself is recent and the page says so plainly. The register records it as established in B.E. 2520 — 1977 — by Phra Achan Panya Vutthito, and the buildings borrow forms from several periods rather than belonging to one. The compound holds three chedi spires rising from a shared base and a large number of Buddha images. It is an active place of worship and one of the most visited temples in the province, and its appeal is architectural spectacle on a volcanic rim rather than antiquity.
That distinction is worth making because it is routinely blurred. English descriptions of this temple often transfer the age of the sema stones onto the buildings and produce a thousand-year-old monastery that does not exist. What is actually here is a modern monastery deliberately sited on ancient Buddhist ground, with the ancient ground still visible in the compound. Told straight, that is more interesting than the invented version.
Eight pairs of ancient sema stones standing in the compound, cut from basalt and carved with figures, stupas, lotus flowers and dharma wheels.
Three chedi spires rising from a single shared base.
The crater of the volcano the temple is built on — a Quaternary plug dome, per the state environmental register.
A large collection of Buddha images across the compound, in forms drawn from several periods.
The line of volcanoes: Phanom Rung on the next hill east, and Khao Plai Bat beyond it.
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 | An active monastery. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off where the signs ask for it, and the ordination hall treated as a place of worship rather than a viewpoint. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Charoen Suk, Chaloem Phra Kiat district, on the volcano about 11 km west of Phanom Rung — commonly combined with it in a single day. |
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.
Two answers, and they must not be merged. The monastery you walk into was established in B.E. 2520 — 1977 — by Phra Achan Panya Vutthito, according to the state cultural-environment register. The sema stones standing in its compound are Dvaravati work that the same register dates to around the 13th to 14th Buddhist centuries, roughly thirteen hundred years ago. Descriptions that give the temple itself an age of a thousand years have transferred the stones' age onto the buildings.
The material. Sema — the boundary stones that mark the consecrated ground of an ordination hall — are usually sandstone or laterite. These are cut from basalt, and the state register singles that out as an unusual find in Thailand. The volcano they stand on is the obvious explanation. They carry carved figures, stupas, lotus flowers and dharma wheels, and eight pairs of them are in the compound.
Yes. The state environmental register describes the hill as a plug dome formed during the Quaternary, on the order of seven hundred thousand years ago, and the monastery is built on its crater. It is one of a line of extinct volcanoes running through this part of Buriram; Phanom Rung stands on another about eleven kilometres east, and Khao Plai Bat on a third beyond that.
Easily — they are about eleven kilometres apart on the same road system in the same district, and most people who come for Phanom Rung and Prasat Mueang Tam add this and see all three. The two Khmer sanctuaries are ticketed historical park sites; this is a working monastery with no published charge.
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.