The royal monastery of Kanchanaburi town, known to everyone locally as Wat Tai — the southern temple, paired with Wat Nuea to the north. The Fine Arts Department says its history is not known for certain, and the only firm date on the site is stamped in the plaster of a pediment.
วัดไชยชุมพลชนะสงคราม · Wat Chai Chumphon Chana Songkhram
| Official name | วัดไชยชุมพลชนะสงคราม — Wat Chai Chumphon Chana Songkhram |
|---|---|
| Where | Ban Tai, Mueang Kanchanaburi, Kanchanaburi |
| 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. 52, p. 3679, 8 March B.E. 2478 Item 6 of the Kanchanaburi block in the national ancient-monuments list of 8 March B.E. 2478, read by eye from the scan in this run: วัดไชยชุมพลชนะสงคราม อำเภอเมือง ตำบลบ้านใต้. The department's register carries no boundary row for it, so ninety years after registration no land boundary has been gazetted here. Note the locality: the 1935 instrument, the department's own written history and the Kanchanaburi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism all place the temple in ตำบลบ้านใต้, while the department's structured locality field puts it in ตำบลท่ามะขาม. |
| Coordinates | 14.015852, 99.531640 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0004834 (GPS) |
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.
No founding date for this temple is established and the Fine Arts Department says so in its own words. The royal-monastery grade is likewise not established here: the provincial Office of Buddhism calls it a พระอารามหลวง but publishes no class or sub-rank for it, and the national temple register at binfo.onab.go.th refused every request in this run, from a server and from a real browser. The `royalClass` field is therefore null rather than a guess.
Wat Chai Chumphon Chana Songkhram stands in Ban Tai, on the south side of Kanchanaburi town near the Mae Klong. It is universally called Wat Tai, the southern temple, in the same breath as Wat Nuea, the northern one, and the pairing is how local people navigate the old town. The Kanchanaburi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism refers to it in its own notices as a royal monastery — พระอารามหลวง — which is a real and official status, though that office does not publish the grade or the sub-rank that would place it on the ladder of royal monasteries, and the national register that would settle it could not be reached for this page.
It is one of the six Kanchanaburi monuments in the first national ancient-monuments list, published on 8 March B.E. 2478 under section 6 of the Act of B.E. 2477. That list is worth pausing on, because Kanchanaburi is the first province in it: six entries, of which three are ruined temples in the old city at Lat Ya, one is Mueang Sing, one is the town wall, and this is the sixth and the only one of the six that was and still is a living monastery. Ninety years later the department's register still carries no gazetted land boundary for it.
The Fine Arts Department's own written history is one sentence long and it is an admission: the temple is in Tambon Ban Tai, Mueang Kanchanaburi, and its history is not known for certain. That is unusually blunt even by the department's standards, and it is the reason this page carries no founding date. What the department does instead is describe what stands there, which turns out to be a more interesting document than a date would have been.
The most quotable thing on the site is a number in plaster. The mondop — a four-porched building with a pointed crown, on a relatively tall base, with doors and steps on all four sides — has moulded decoration on every pediment, and on one of them the department records the characters ศก ๑๓๑. That is Rattanakosin Era 131, which is 1912, the last year of the reign of King Chulalongkorn and the first of King Vajiravudh. It dates the mondop's decoration and nothing else, but it is a hard date on a site where the department otherwise offers none.
The rest of the compound is older and in worse condition. Two brick-and-stucco gateway arches stand about ten metres apart on the same line, one near the base of the old wihan and one in front of the Guan Yin shrine building; both are single arches with no building left around them, their pointed openings about 2.5 metres high and 1.5 metres wide, with stucco figures the department describes as resembling a yaksha or Hanuman. There is a rectangular wihan base. And there are six chedis, square in plan on stacked lion-foot mouldings rising to the bell, every one of them missing its finial and some reduced to their bases; the department reads them as late Ayutthaya to early Rattanakosin.
The department's condition note is worth repeating because it is a live warning rather than a description: most of the monument is in good order, the mondop is under restoration, and the gateway arches and the chedis are decayed and have not been restored. A visitor should expect a working royal monastery with a Chinese shrine in it and a group of unrestored brick ruins standing among the modern buildings. BAANLYY does not represent the temple and nothing here is legal or religious advice.
The mondop: a four-porched building with a pointed crown, on a comparatively high base, with a door and steps on each of the four sides and moulded plaster on every pediment. One pediment carries the characters ศก ๑๓๑ — Rattanakosin Era 131, or 1912 — which is the only firm date the Fine Arts Department records anywhere on this site.
Six brick-and-stucco chedis, square in plan, built up on stacked lion-foot mouldings to the bell. Every finial has gone and some are down to the base. The department reads them as late Ayutthaya to early Rattanakosin work.
Two brick-and-stucco gateway arches about ten metres apart on the same alignment — one beside the base of the old wihan, the other in front of the Guan Yin shrine building. Each is a single arch with nothing left of the building it belonged to: a pointed opening about 2.5 metres high and 1.5 metres wide, with stucco ornament the department describes as resembling a yaksha or Hanuman.
The rectangular brick-and-stucco base of the old wihan, which is all that survives of it.
The Guan Yin shrine building, which is what one of the surviving arches now stands in front of — a reminder that this is a working urban temple with a mixed congregation and not an archaeological park.
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 royal monastery. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before entering the ordination hall, the wihan or the mondop. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Ban Tai, Amphoe Mueang Kanchanaburi, on the south side of the town near the Mae Klong. It is the temple locally called Wat Tai. |
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.
Wat Tai means the southern temple, and it is how the temple is known locally and how the Kanchanaburi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism itself refers to it in brackets in its published notices. The name is one half of a pair: Wat Nuea, the northern temple, is Wat Thewasangkharam, about a kilometre and a half away on the other side of the old town. Between them they are the two temples a Kanchanaburi resident will name first, and both are in this guide.
No source read for this page says. The Fine Arts Department's national register opens its account of the temple with the words ไม่ทราบประวัติที่แน่ชัด, the history is not known for certain, and gives no founding date. What is dated is fabric rather than foundation: the six chedis are read as late Ayutthaya to early Rattanakosin work, and one pediment of the mondop carries the characters ศก ๑๓๑ in plaster — Rattanakosin Era 131, which is 1912. The temple was registered as a national ancient monument on 8 March B.E. 2478.
It is a royal monastery: the Kanchanaburi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism uses the words วัดไชยชุมพลชนะสงคราม พระอารามหลวง in its own published notices, which is a state body naming the status directly. What class it holds is a different question and this page does not answer it. The provincial office publishes no grade or sub-rank, and the national temple register that carries those fields refused every request made in this run from both a server and a real browser. An invented grade would be worse than an omitted one, so the field is left empty.
Mixed, and the Fine Arts Department says so. Its condition note records that most of the monument is in good order, that the mondop was under restoration at the time of survey, and that the two gateway arches and the chedis are decayed and have not been restored. Expect a busy working temple with a Guan Yin shrine in it, and a scatter of unrestored brickwork standing among modern monastery buildings rather than a tidied archaeological site.
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 Kanchanaburi’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.