A registered ancient monument on the Ang Sila shore south of Chonburi city, where the original late-Ayutthaya ordination hall survives only as its base and the vihara beside it carries later wall paintings.
โบราณสถานวัดอ่างศิลา · Wat Ang Sila
| Official name | โบราณสถานวัดอ่างศิลา — Wat Ang Sila |
|---|---|
| Where | Ang Sila, Mueang Chonburi, Chonburi |
| 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 เล่มที่ ๑๑๖ ตอนพิเศษ ๑๗ ง, ๑๗ มีนาคม ๒๕๔๒ Read directly from the Fine Arts Department own on-site interpretive page for this monument at qrcode.finearts.go.th, which states ได้รับการขึ้นทะเบียน ตามประกาศในราชกิจจานุเบกษา เล่มที่ ๑๑๖ ตอนพิเศษ ๑๗ ง วันที่ ๑๗ มีนาคม ๒๕๔๒. This is the only gazette citation in this province file taken from the registering authority own publication rather than quoted at second hand, and the surface it came from — the department QR-code pages, organised by province — is new to this guide. No page number and no land area are given there. |
| Coordinates | 13.334004, 100.931488 ONEP cultural-environment register, site 2808, which gives the coordinate against an address of ตำบลอ่างศิลา อำเภอเมืองชลบุรี จังหวัดชลบุรี. Checked against Ang Sila subdistrict and Mueang Chonburi district before printing, and checked specifically against the coordinate of Chonburi city about three kilometres north, after the Buriram run found a provincial-capital default sitting in an ONEP coordinate field. It is not that; it falls on the Ang Sila shore |
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 late-Ayutthaya dating is the department own reading of the architecture, not a documented foundation. There is no founder, no dated royal act and no inscription. The one hard date on the site is 1999, when it was registered, and the one hard date in its institutional history is B.E. 2459, when two temples became one.
Ang Sila is a working fishing village on the coast a few kilometres south of Chonburi city, better known today for its seafood market and its stone mortars than for anything older. The monument that carries its name sits in the middle of that, and it is one of the few places in the province where the Ayutthaya period is physically legible rather than merely asserted.
The Fine Arts Department reads the site as having two building campaigns. The first, which it presumes on architectural evidence to belong to the late Ayutthaya period, produced an ordination hall and a chedi whose base mouldings were decorated. The second, in the Rattanakosin period, enlarged the complex, and it is from this phase that the present vihara with its wall paintings comes. Neither campaign is documented by an instrument; both are read off the buildings.
The institutional history has one firm date and it is a curious one. What is now a single temple was formerly two separate temples standing beside each other, and they were merged in B.E. 2459 — 1916. The structure now serving as the vihara was, before that merger, the ordination hall of the outer of the two. That is the kind of detail that explains an otherwise confusing plan, and it is the reason the building the visitor walks into is not the building the monument is named for.
What survives of the earliest phase is fragmentary and honest about it. The original ordination hall is gone above its lower base. Three chedis stand in front of the vihara, and the decorated base mouldings of the original central chedi remain. The department registered the whole as a national ancient monument in the Royal Gazette announcement of 17 March B.E. 2542, which is 1999, and that registration — read here from the department own interpretive page rather than quoted at second hand — is the one citation on this province page that comes from the authority that made it.
The lower base of the original ordination hall, which is all that survives of the late-Ayutthaya building the monument is named for.
The present vihara, which before the two temples merged in B.E. 2459 was the ordination hall of the outer of them, and which carries wall paintings of the later Rattanakosin phase.
Three chedis standing in front of the vihara, and the decorated base mouldings of the original central chedi.
The setting: a fishing village and seafood market on the gulf shore, which is not the usual context for a registered Ayutthaya-period monument and is part of why this one is easy to walk past.
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 working temple compound as well as a registered monument, so shoulders and knees covered and shoes off where indicated. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Ang Sila, Mueang Chonburi district, on the coast a short drive south of Chonburi city and near the Ang Sila seafood market. |
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. The Fine Arts Department registered it by an announcement published in the Royal Gazette on 17 March B.E. 2542, which is 1999, and the department states that citation on its own interpretive page for the site.
The Fine Arts Department presumes from the architecture that building began in the late Ayutthaya period, and says so as a presumption rather than a record. There is no founder, no foundation date and no inscription, so this page gives no founding year.
Because it was two temples until 1916. They were merged in B.E. 2459, and the building now used as the vihara was previously the ordination hall of the outer of the two. The original ordination hall of the older temple survives only as its lower base.
The lower base of the original ordination hall, three chedis in front of the vihara, and the decorated base mouldings of the original central chedi. The upper structure of the earliest phase is gone.
Neither could be confirmed from an official source, so this page does not state them. It is a working temple compound as well as a registered monument, and the sensible approach is to visit in daylight and dress as you would for any active place of worship.
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 Chonburi’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.