Two brick chedi at Ban Yang Noi, one hollow and holding a large Buddha image, the other tapering to a point in the manner of Phra That Phanom, and a third that antiquities thieves dug out and destroyed.
ธาตุกุดจอก · Phra That Kut Chok
By the BAANLYY Editorial Team · Last checked 27 September 2026
| Official name | ธาตุกุดจอก — Phra That Kut Chok |
|---|---|
| Where | Ban Yang, Kaset Sombun, Chaiyaphum |
| 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 Royal Gazette vol. 53, part 24, from p. 901, 2 August B.E. 2479 — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร กำหนดจำนวนโบราณสถานสำหรับชาติ, item 28 of the Chaiyaphum list as ธาตุกุดจอก, ตำบลบ้านยาง, signed 13 July B.E. 2479. Later: vol. 119 (special issue), part 119 ง, 4 December B.E. 2545, การกำหนดจำนวนโบราณวัตถุสถานสำหรับชาติ. The 1936 instrument was read from the Royal Gazette's own scan on 27 September 2026 and it places this monument in อำเภอภูเขียว, while the department's register today places it in อำเภอเกษตรสมบูรณ์. Both are correct for their date: Kaset Sombun was separated out of Phu Khiao afterwards, and the subdistrict, บ้านยาง, is the same in both. The 2545 instrument was read from the department's register service and its wording was not opened. The register carries the monument at the status meaning registered with a determined land boundary, and classifies it as a religious building. |
| Coordinates | 16.269642, 101.937916 Fine Arts Department national monument register, the department's own registered point for monument 0002187, read from its province service on 27 September 2026. It falls in Tambon Ban Yang, which is the subdistrict both the register and the 1936 gazette instrument state. The Tourism Authority's own map for this monument centres on 16.26994, 101.9382, about forty metres away. |
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 chronicle account cannot stand as arithmetic, and the page is written to say so rather than to repeat it. Lan Xang was founded in the fourteenth century of the common era, some five and a half centuries after the year the account gives, so the date and the attribution cannot both be right. The 1,200-year figure on the same page is older still and is attached to no evidence. What can be said is that a group of That in this district shares a Lao-manner form, and that the state protected this one in 1936.
Phra That Kut Chok stands at Mu 2, Ban Yang Noi, in Tambon Ban Yang, and it is named after the Huai Kut Chok stream that runs past to the north. The Tourism Authority's account is the fullest one published about it and is worth reading closely, because it is partly a description and partly a lament. Two brick chedi survive. The first has a hollow reliquary chamber, and inside it a large image of the Buddha in limestone plaster and a sandstone image in the attitude of subduing Mara. The second is a That that tapers to a point in the manner of Phra That Phanom in Nakhon Phanom, which is the form that carried up this river system from the Mekong.
There were three. The Tourism Authority records the first as about fifteen meters high, shaped like a stupa, and crowned with the heads of eight nagas set around it at the eight directions, of which one survives; a standing Buddha image in the attitude of gazing, the two hands hanging in front of the lap with the right laid over the left, stands with it. The second collapsed to half its height. The third, which stood behind the largest, was dug out and destroyed by thieves looking for images and antiquities. That sentence is in a state tourism authority's own description of one of its own province's registered monuments, and it is the plainest statement of what happens to an unguarded That anywhere in this guide.
The record behind the monument is thin and old. It is item 28 on the Fine Arts Department's very first list of national ancient monuments, published in the Royal Gazette on 2 August B.E. 2479 and signed by the Director-General a fortnight before; that instrument was read at source for this guide, and it places the monument in Phu Khiao district, Tambon Ban Yang. The department's register today gives the district as Kaset Sombun. Both are right for their moment, because Kaset Sombun was carved out of Phu Khiao later, and the subdistrict never changed — but a reader searching for the monument by its 1936 address will look in the wrong district, which is exactly the kind of quiet trap this guide exists to write down. A second instrument of 4 December B.E. 2545 follows, and the register carries the monument with a determined land boundary.
What the monument still is, rather than what it was, is a place people come to. The Tourism Authority records that villagers in the surrounding hamlets have long held it in high regard, that a water-pouring rite for the That is kept on the waxing fifteenth day of the fifth lunar month each year without anybody arranging it, and that the people of Ban Yang Noi have maintained the observance every year, sometimes as a fair over three days and three nights. The authority also gives the reason the stream matters to the story: it was once long and deep, and the crocodile said to have lived in it is the figure the punishment stories attach to.
The first chedi: brick, with a hollow reliquary chamber, holding a large Buddha image in limestone plaster and a sandstone image in the attitude of subduing Mara.
The second chedi: a That tapering to a point in the manner of Phra That Phanom, which is the form that traveled up this river system.
The single surviving naga head on the larger That, of the eight the Tourism Authority records as having been set around its top at the eight directions.
The standing Buddha in the attitude of gazing, with both hands hanging in front of the lap and the right laid over the left.
The gap where the third That stood, behind the largest, which the Tourism Authority records as having been dug out and destroyed by antiquities thieves.
The Huai Kut Chok stream to the north, which the monument is named after and which carries the crocodile legend the authority records.
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 village monument that is still used for merit-making. Cover shoulders and knees, and do not enter the hollow reliquary chamber or touch the images inside it. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Mu 2, Ban Yang Noi, Tambon Ban Yang, Kaset Sombun, Chaiyaphum 36120. The provincial office of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports is the contact the Tourism Authority publishes for it, on +66 4421 3030. |
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 survive. The Tourism Authority records that there were originally three, and that the third, which stood behind the largest, was dug out and destroyed by thieves looking for images and antiquities.
A hollow reliquary chamber holding a large Buddha image in limestone plaster and a sandstone image in the attitude of subduing Mara, on the Tourism Authority's description.
Nothing read for this page supports that. The figure comes from one tourism page, alongside a chronicle date that does not work arithmetically, and no excavation report, inscription or stylistic study of the monument was found. What is documented is that the state protected it in B.E. 2479.
Because the district changed, not the monument. The 1936 gazette list places it in Phu Khiao; the Fine Arts Department register places it in Kaset Sombun, which was separated out of Phu Khiao later. The subdistrict, Ban Yang, is the same in both.
The Tourism Authority gives the water-pouring rite for the That as the waxing fifteenth day of the fifth lunar month each year, kept by the people of Ban Yang Noi, sometimes as a fair over three days and three nights.
No official source read for this page publishes them. The authority's page has an operating-hours field and leaves it blank, so nothing is stated here rather than a time being copied from a travel site.
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 Chaiyaphum’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.
Last checked 27 September 2026
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.