A third-class royal monastery on a hill above the shore north of Chonburi city, named for the Buddha footprint on its north-eastern side and elevated to royal status in 1946.
วัดเขาบางทราย · Wat Khao Bang Sai
| Official name | วัดเขาบางทราย — Wat Khao Bang Sai |
|---|---|
| Where | Bang Sai, Mueang Chonburi, Chonburi |
| Royal temple class | Third class royal temple, Saman (ชั้นตรี ชนิดสามัญ) Fine Arts Department, which states วัดเขาบางทรายได้รับการยกฐานะเป็นพระอารามหลวงชั้นตรี ชนิดสามัญ เมื่อวันที่ 7 เมษายน พ.ศ.2489 |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Not established. |
Bang Sai, Mueang Chonburi, Chonburi
The exact location has not been confirmed yet.
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 only date here that rests on a dated instrument is 1946. The Ayutthaya construction window, the ruin, and the two restorations come from a narrative history and carry no register citation, no gazette entry and no inscription in anything read for this page. The two are kept apart deliberately.
Wat Khao Bang Sai sits in Tambon Bang Sai, in Mueang Chonburi district, on the rising ground just north of the provincial town. The Fine Arts Department notes that the temple simply took the name of its locality — Bang Sai — but that for a long time nobody used it in that plain form. Villagers called it Wat Khao Phra Phutthabat Bang Sai, the hill temple of the Buddha footprint at Bang Sai, because the footprint enshrined on the north-eastern side of the compound was the thing that mattered about the place, and they put it into the name.
That is the clearest thing the record says about the temple, and it is more revealing than a founding date would be. A temple named by its own community for the object it houses is a temple defined by devotion rather than by architecture, and the four things the department lists as its significant sacred structures bear that out: the mondop over the Buddha footprint, the footprint itself, a solid chedi, and a hollow one.
The dated history is short and exact at one end and vague at the other. On 7 April B.E. 2489 — 1946 — the temple was raised to the rank of a third-class royal monastery of ordinary type. That is a documented act with a day attached to it, and it is the anchor of this page. Behind it lies an account the provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism publishes: construction under the Ayutthaya kings somewhere between B.E. 2249 and B.E. 2275, a period of ruin, a restoration by royal order in B.E. 2390, and further work in the reign of King Chulalongkorn which included rebuilding the footprint shrine.
None of that earlier sequence is attached to a register entry, a gazette announcement or an inscription in anything this page could read, and so it is given as the account that office carries rather than as established history. The pattern is the ordinary one for Thai provincial temples: a precise modern administrative record sitting on top of a much longer story that the state has never had occasion to document.
The mondop over the Buddha footprint on the north-eastern side of the compound — the structure the temple was named for by its own community.
The Buddha footprint itself, which the Fine Arts Department lists first among the temple sacred objects and which the provincial account says was rebuilt in the reign of King Chulalongkorn.
พระเจดีย์ตัน, the solid chedi, and พระเจดีย์โพรง, the hollow one — two chedis of different construction standing in the same compound, which the department names separately.
The hill position itself, above the shore road north of Chonburi city, which is what the Khao in the name refers to and what makes the compound a climb rather than a stroll.
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 royal monastery with a venerated Buddha footprint: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at the mondop. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Bang Sai, Mueang Chonburi district, on rising ground just north of Chonburi city. |
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.
It is a third-class royal monastery of ordinary type — พระอารามหลวงชั้นตรี ชนิดสามัญ — raised to that rank on 7 April B.E. 2489, which is 1946, as recorded by the Fine Arts Department.
Because of the Buddha footprint enshrined on the north-eastern side of the compound. The Fine Arts Department explains that villagers folded the name of that sacred object into the name of the temple itself, which tells you what the place meant locally.
Not established by any instrument this page could read. An account published by the provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism places its construction under the Ayutthaya kings between B.E. 2249 and B.E. 2275, with later ruin and restorations, but nothing consulted attaches a register entry or gazette citation to that sequence.
The Fine Arts Department names them separately as พระเจดีย์ตัน and พระเจดีย์โพรง — a solid chedi and a hollow one. The distinction is structural: one is a filled mass, the other has an interior space.
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.