Two reclining Buddhas carved in low relief on the same hillside above Kalasin town, four or five centuries apart by the department's own stylistic reckoning.
พระพุทธไสยาสน์ภูปอ · Phra Phuttha Saiyat Phu Po
| Official name | พระพุทธไสยาสน์ภูปอ — Phra Phuttha Saiyat Phu Po |
|---|---|
| Where | Phu Po, Mueang Kalasin, Kalasin |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Named in a Royal Gazette list of ancient monuments; not registered Fine Arts Department announcement, list of ancient monuments in Kalasin province — Royal Gazette vol. 140, special part 149 ง, p. 27, 23 June B.E. 2566, signed by Director-General Phanombut Chantharachot on 12 January B.E. 2566 Named in a Royal Gazette list of ancient monuments, which the department codes separately from registration and which does not invoke the section 7 registration and land-boundary power. It appears as item 1 under Amphoe Mueang Kalasin in that list. Protected, but not a registered monument with a determined boundary. |
| Coordinates | 16.625201, 103.623433 Fine Arts Department register, monument id 0003327, GPS-sourced point, cross-checked against the Tambon Phu Po address in the B.E. 2566 Gazette list |
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.
Two images, two supposed periods, no dated evidence for either. The ancient characters incised below the feet of the lower image are the one thing on the hill that could settle a date, and nothing read reports a reading of them.
Phu Po is a hill north-east of Kalasin town, and it carries two reclining Buddhas rather than one. That is the whole point of the place and it is what most descriptions of it miss. The Fine Arts Department's register treats them as two positions on one site, and the measurements it publishes make clear they are not a pair in any designed sense.
The lower image is on a rock face beneath an overhang at the foot of the hill, about five metres above the flat ground. The relief stands fifteen centimetres off the stone, the figure is roughly 3.3 metres long and 1.27 metres across at its widest. The department's reading of it is Dvaravati form mixed with local Isan work, supposed to fall in the twelfth to fourteenth Buddhist centuries. The Buddha lies on the right side in the sihasaiya posture, head resting on the right hand and forearm, head to the north and face to the west. The face is squared and flat, the hair curls are large, the ushnisha rises in a pronounced cone, and the robe is shown drawn close across the body without pleats, only a slight flare of cloth at the lower edge. Below the feet there are ancient characters incised into the rock.
The second image is much further up, under an overhang near the summit, and it is a bigger piece of work: the relief projects 3.45 metres from the wall, stands about 2.65 metres off the floor, and runs roughly 5.2 metres from the halo above the head to the edge of the couch at the feet, 1.5 metres at its widest, with the relief standing out as much as 55 centimetres. Same posture, right side, sihasaiya. The face is different in kind rather than degree — an oval, the brows drawn as sharp curves running into the eyes, a high nose bridge, a faint smile, long ears in proportion. The department reads it as Dvaravati form mixed with Sukhothai-period art and supposes a date four to six centuries later than the lower image, in the eighteenth to nineteenth Buddhist centuries.
Both of those dates are the department's own suppositions, and the register says so in its own words. That matters here more than it usually would, because a hill with two carvings of different ages invites a tidy story about one being a copy of the other, and no record supports one. What the record supports is this: somebody carved a reclining Buddha into the rock at the bottom of the hill, and centuries later somebody else carved a larger one near the top, and the state has only ever dated them by looking at them.
The lower reclining Buddha under an overhang at the foot of the hill — 3.3 metres long, relief fifteen centimetres deep, with a squared flat face, large hair curls and a cone-shaped ushnisha.
Ancient characters incised into the rock below the feet of the lower image, unread in anything consulted here.
The upper reclining Buddha near the summit — about 5.2 metres from halo to couch, relief up to 55 centimetres deep, with an oval face and the sharp brow line the department associates with Sukhothai work.
The climb between them, which is the reason the two are usually treated as one site and seen as two separate visits.
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 | Two images in active devotional use on an open hillside. Cover shoulders and knees; remove shoes where a platform has been laid. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | North-east of Kalasin town at Ban Non Sawan, Tambon Phu Po. The lower image is a short walk from the road; the upper one is a climb to near the summit and is a separate undertaking. |
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 register describes two carvings in two positions: one under an overhang at the foot of the hill and a larger one near the summit.
The department supposes the lower image is twelfth to fourteenth Buddhist century and the upper eighteenth to nineteenth, both on stylistic grounds. Its register labels these as suppositions, and no dated evidence is published for either.
It is named in a Royal Gazette list of ancient monuments published on 23 June B.E. 2566, which the department codes separately from registration. It carries no determined land boundary.
Mueang Kalasin, Tambon Phu Po, per the Gazette list. The department's GIS register wrongly files it under Sahatsakhan, which is worth knowing if you search the register yourself.
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 Kalasin’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.