A sandstone outcrop north of the provincial town carved with Buddha images, the largest of them seated in the subduing-Mara attitude with the left hand on the lap instead of the right, and registered afresh with a mapped boundary in January 2026.
ภูพระ · Phu Phra
By the BAANLYY Editorial Team · Last checked 27 September 2026
| Official name | ภูพระ — Phu Phra |
|---|---|
| Where | Na Siao, Mueang Chaiyaphum, 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. 143 (special issue), part 6 ง, 8 January B.E. 2569 — registration as a national ancient monument with a determined land boundary. Earlier: vol. 53, part 24, from p. 901, 2 August B.E. 2479, ประกาศกรมศิลปากร กำหนดจำนวนโบราณสถานสำหรับชาติ, item 3 of the Chaiyaphum list as ภูพระ, อำเภอเมืองชัยภูมิ ตำบลนาเสียว. The 2569 instrument is eight months old at the time of writing and is the reason this record reads differently from every other Chaiyaphum monument: the department's register carries it at the status meaning registered with a determined boundary, and the instrument that put it there is from January 2026. The 1936 list was read from the Royal Gazette's own scan; the 2026 instrument was read from the department's register service, which returns its volume, part, date and the filename of the departmental scan, and its wording was not opened. Note also that Thai Wikipedia and several private sites date the protection of this site to 8 March B.E. 2478; the department's own register cites 2 August B.E. 2479, and that is the date used here. |
| Coordinates | 15.916466, 102.060969 Fine Arts Department national monument register, the department's own registered point for monument 0002140, read from its province service on 27 September 2026. It falls in Tambon Na Siao, Mueang Chaiyaphum, which is the subdistrict both the register and the 1936 gazette instrument state — and which is what distinguishes this monument from the other ภูพระ in this province, monument 0002229, eighty kilometres away in Phu Khiao. |
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.
Nothing read for this page dates the carving of the rock. The department's stylistic reading gives a horizon of several centuries rather than a year, which is the honest state of it, and the two bodies that describe the principal image agree on its size within a few centimeters without either of them dating it.
Phu Phra is a low sandstone hill at Tambon Na Siao, north of Chaiyaphum town, and the monastery that has grown up around it is Wat Sila At. The Fine Arts Department's register classifies the place as an archaeological site rather than as a religious building, which is the right way round: the images were carved into living rock and the monastery came afterwards. It is one of the three Chaiyaphum monuments named in the department's very first list of national ancient monuments in 1936, alongside Prang Ku and a group of boundary stones in the town.
The principal image is the one everybody comes for, and it is a genuine oddity. The department gives it as five feet across the lap and seven feet high — the Provincial Office of Buddhism, describing the same image, says about two meters, which agrees. It has a square face, a small lotus-bud flame, long incised hair lines rather than curls, small brows joined in a wing shape, small eyes looking straight ahead, a triangular nose, a small mouth and long ears. The robe is worn covering, the shoulder line is long, and the sanghati falls in a straight cut edge to the navel. It sits in the diamond posture in the attitude of subduing Mara, and here is the peculiarity the department singles out: the left hand rests on the lap where in every ordinary image of that attitude it is the right. Local people call it Phra Chao Ong Tue, the great Buddha, and treat it as the most powerful thing in the district.
What makes the carving interesting to an art historian is that it belongs to two worlds at once, and the department is careful about which parts belong to which. The square face and the wing-shaped brows are local Dvaravati habits. The treatment of the hairline and the inverted-cone flame above the head are Khmer, from the period when Khmer forms were spreading widely through this region in the 16th to 18th Buddhist centuries. On the adorned image among the group, the crown or diadem resembles what is found on Khmer images in the Angkor Wat and Bayon manners of the 17th to 18th Buddhist centuries. None of that dates the carving; all of it places it in a cultural horizon, and the department stops there rather than converting a style into a year.
The most recent thing about this site is also the most concrete. On 8 January B.E. 2569 the Fine Arts Department published an instrument in the Royal Gazette registering Phu Phra as a national ancient monument and determining its land boundary — the step Prang Ku got in 1982 and Phra That Nong Sam Muen got the same year. That is eight months ago at the time of writing, and it means the extent of the protected area here is now mapped rather than merely declared. The site has meanwhile stayed a living place of worship: the Provincial Office of Buddhism records the group spirit dance performed here as an offering on the waxing thirteenth to fifteenth days of the fifth lunar month, and again at the entry to and the exit from the rains retreat.
Phra Chao Ong Tue, the principal image: cut in the rock, five feet across the lap and seven feet high by the Fine Arts Department's measurement, seated in the diamond posture in the attitude of subduing Mara.
The detail the department points to: the LEFT hand laid on the lap, where an image in that attitude normally has the right. It is the single most unusual thing on the outcrop.
The face and the hair: a square face and small brows joined in a wing shape, which are Dvaravati habits, above long incised hair lines and an inverted-cone flame, which are Khmer.
The adorned image in the group, whose crown the department compares with Khmer work of the Angkor Wat or Bayon manner.
The sandstone outcrop itself, which is the monument: the register classifies this as an archaeological site, and the monastery buildings around it are later.
In the fifth lunar month, the merit-making and the group spirit dance that the Provincial Office of Buddhism records as an offering here.
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 place of worship built around carved images in living rock. Cover shoulders and knees, remove shoes where the flooring is laid, and do not touch or climb the carved rock. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Na Siao, Mueang Chaiyaphum, reached through Wat Sila At. No official source read for this page gives a road route or a distance, so the coordinate below is the reliable way to find it. |
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.
The hand. It sits in the attitude of subduing Mara, but with the left hand resting on the lap instead of the right, which is the reverse of the normal arrangement. The Fine Arts Department names this as its special feature.
The Fine Arts Department gives five feet across the lap and seven feet in height. The Provincial Office of Buddhism, describing the same carved sandstone image, gives about two meters, which is consistent.
The department's answer is both, in different features. The square face and the wing-shaped brows are local Dvaravati habits; the hairline treatment and the inverted-cone flame are Khmer of the kind that spread here in the 16th to 18th Buddhist centuries, and the diadem on the adorned image resembles Angkor Wat or Bayon work.
Yes. The Fine Arts Department published an instrument in the Royal Gazette on 8 January B.E. 2569 registering the site and determining its land boundary, so the protected area is now mapped rather than only declared.
The Provincial Office of Buddhism records the group spirit dance offered here on the waxing thirteenth to fifteenth days of the fifth lunar month, which falls in April, and again at the entry to and exit from the rains retreat. No state source read for this page gives calendar dates for it in a particular year.
No. The 1936 gazette list names ภูพระ twice in this province: this one in Tambon Na Siao, Mueang Chaiyaphum, and a second in Phu Khiao district, which the register carries separately as monument 0002229 about eighty kilometers away.
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.