An exceptionally large Isan sim at Ban Na Chan, built by two Vietnamese craftsmen and painted outside with the Vessantara Jataka by a named local artist.
วัดอุดมประชาราษฎร์ · Wat Udom Pracharat
| Official name | วัดอุดมประชาราษฎร์ — Wat Udom Pracharat |
|---|---|
| Where | Na Chan, Mueang Kalasin, Kalasin |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Maha Nikaya |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument Royal Gazette vol. 115, special part 4 ง, 14 January B.E. 2541 — registration of the monument and determination of its land boundary at about 1 rai 2 ngan 45.68 square wa, in a joint instrument covering monuments in Roi Et, Kalasin and Mukdahan Registered with a determined land boundary. The instrument was read at source and its Kalasin entry reads โบราณสถานวัดอุดมประชาราษฎร์ บ้านนาจารย์ ตำบลนาจารย์ อำเภอเมือง จังหวัดกาฬสินธุ์ as item 2. The monastery is recorded as both owner and custodian, on a Nor Sor 3 Kor title. |
| Coordinates | 16.525674, 103.612464 Fine Arts Department register, monument id 0003326, GPS-sourced point |
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 dates above are register entries; the attribution of the carving and painting is interview evidence. The register prints both and so does this page, on separate sides of the line.
Wat Udom Pracharat is a village monastery eleven kilometres out of Kalasin town, and its ordination hall is the most completely documented piece of vernacular building in this province's register. The department's entry does something registers almost never do: it names the people. The sim was led by Yakhu Buppha Phasuwiharo, then abbot. The architects were two Vietnamese brothers, Thongkham Chancharoen and Khammi Chancharoen, who had married into Ban Na Chan and were living in the village while the work went on. Thongkham died before he was fifty, leaving four children. The register lists his other work too — a sim at Ban Nong I But in Huai Phueng district, and a sim at Ban Na in Tambon Muang Na, the second of which got only as far as its waist-moulding before the money ran out and has since been pulled down.
The building is what the register calls extra-large: five bays long by three wide, 13.27 metres by 7.85 metres, with a 2.65-metre veranda running right round so the whole footprint comes to 14.5 by 20 metres exactly. The floor stands 1.4 metres above ground. The roof steps down in three tiers with a continuous skirt carried on square brick-built columns around the outside. Along each side of the roof, five carved wooden nagas run down in relief with their heads turned towards the ground. The front gable carries a low-relief garuda the register compares to the one on a banknote, with a dragon curling its tail at either side — Vietnamese work throughout, to the point where even the naga guarding the stairs came out looking like a crested rooster.
The paintings are what make it matter. The register's own description singles out the hup taem — the Isan word for this kind of mural — painted in the arched recesses of the two closed bays and on the outside of the end wall. The subject is the Vessantara Jataka, worked straight onto the lime-plastered wall, and the department's assessment of the exterior painter is unreserved: very skilled, very good with colour, covering the whole outer gable wall and two bays along each side. He is named. Chan Phai, of Ban Kham Chiang Wan, Tambon Na Makhuea, Sahatsakhan district, working panel by panel to the commission of whoever paid for each panel. One inscription under a painting is transcribed in the register and it reads, in substance, that Mr Sa Si Buram had the faith to spend two baht on hiring the painter for a scene from the Mahaphon, and asks for abundant merit in return. The gable-end decoration and the roof finials were done by a second craftsman, Kham Phon, who the register notes was still living at over seventy when the entry was compiled.
The register also records what has changed. The floor inside was fired clay brick and is now marble. Only the altar base survives inside; a wooden Buddha image that once stood on it is gone. The roof was originally shingle and is now corrugated cement tile. The whole roof is sheeted in zinc. The three-tier roof, the register adds in passing, solves the heat problem rather well. The building is still used for the monks' formal acts.
The sim itself at an unusual size — 13.27 by 7.85 metres, or 14.5 by 20 metres counting the veranda, standing 1.4 metres above the ground on a three-tier stepped roof.
Five carved wooden nagas per side running down the roof edge in relief, heads turned towards the ground, and a low-relief garuda on the front gable flanked by dragons.
The hup taem murals: the Vessantara Jataka painted into the arched recesses of the two closed bays and across the outer end wall, by Chan Phai of Ban Kham Chiang Wan.
A donor inscription beneath one painted panel recording a two-baht commission for a scene, which the register transcribes.
Vietnamese detailing throughout, including the stair-guardian naga that the department's own entry says came out resembling a crested rooster.
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 village monastery whose sim is still used for formal monastic acts. Cover shoulders and knees, shoes off at the threshold, and ask before entering the hall. |
| Photography | No restriction is published. The murals on the outer walls are in the open and the interior is in use, so ask inside. |
| Getting there | At Ban Na Chan, Tambon Na Chan, about eleven kilometres north-east of Kalasin town. |
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 register names two Vietnamese brothers, Thongkham and Khammi Chancharoen, who had married into Ban Na Chan, working under the abbot Yakhu Buppha Phasuwiharo.
The Vessantara Jataka, painted in the arched recesses of the two closed bays and across the outer end wall by Chan Phai of Ban Kham Chiang Wan in Sahatsakhan district.
Structurally yes, with changes the register lists: the fired-brick floor is now marble, the shingle roof is now cement tile, and the wooden Buddha image from the altar is gone.
Yes, with a determined land boundary, by the Royal Gazette instrument of 14 January B.E. 2541.
It is still used for formal monastic acts, so ask at the monastery first.
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.