A ruined temple in the old walled city of Kanchanaburi, built around a large stucco Buddha in the Pa Lelai attitude with the monkey and the elephant at his sides. The monk who surveyed the ruins in the 1920s first called it Wat Pha Ok, the split-chest temple, because the image had broken in two.
วัดป่าเลไลยก์ · Wat Pa Lelai
| Official name | วัดป่าเลไลยก์ — Wat Pa Lelai |
|---|---|
| Where | Lat Ya, 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 2 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: วัดป่าเลไลยก์ อำเภอเมือง ตำบลลาดหญ้า. No boundary row appears in the department's register. The register records custody as กรมการศาสนา/กรมศิลปากร, the Department of Religious Affairs and the Fine Arts Department jointly, which is not recorded for the neighbouring Wat Khun Phaen. THIS IS NOT WAT PA LELAI WORAWIHAN IN SUPHANBURI, which is monument 0004901 in Tambon Rua Yai, Mueang Suphanburi, and a different and far better known place. |
| Coordinates | 14.122349, 99.400652 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0004833 (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 two names it carries are both twentieth-century. Wat Pha Ok describes a broken image; Wat Pa Lelai describes the attitude that image is seated in. Neither is evidence of who built the mondop or when.
Wat Pa Lelai stands in Tambon Lat Ya inside the walls of the old city of Kanchanaburi, about 500 metres from Wat Khun Phaen, and the two should be read as one visit. It is item 2 of the six Kanchanaburi entries in the first national ancient-monuments list of B.E. 2478. Before anything else: it is not Wat Pa Lelai Worawihan in Suphanburi, which is a royal monastery with a colossal seated Buddha and a great deal of literature about it. That temple is monument 0004901 in Tambon Rua Yai. This one is a ruin, it is monument 0004833, and the two are constantly confused because they carry the same name.
The name is again a twentieth-century one, and the Fine Arts Department's register tells the story in its own words. About B.E. 2467, Phra Khru Chuan — the monk who was staying at Wat Khun Phaen and who named that temple and Wat Nang Phim and Wat Mae Mai — surveyed the ruined temples inside the old city and called this one Wat Pha Ok, the split-chest temple. The register supposes that the name came from the image standing in its mondop, a large stucco Buddha in the Pa Lelai attitude, and records that the image is said to have been broken in two.
That is a good name and a truthful one, and it is worth noticing that the temple's present name is a tidying-up of it: Pa Lelai is the attitude of the image, the episode in which the Buddha withdrew to the Parileyyaka forest and was attended by an elephant and a monkey. The stucco figures of both animals crouch at either side of the image inside the mondop, which is how the attitude is recognised. So the temple is named twice over after a statue, and neither name records anything about its foundation.
The mondop itself is the best thing on the site: brick, square, 7.60 metres a side and 6.60 metres high, standing on inverted-lotus mouldings, with niches for standing Buddhas on the north, south and west faces and its door on the east. Behind it lies a long wihan, 7 by 19.7 metres and 3 metres high, with two doorways on the east, raised on a platform 10 by 21.70 metres. Both sit within a brick precinct wall 27 by 55 metres and about 90 centimetres thick, entered from the east and the north.
Two chedis complete the group. The larger stands inside the wall, a round brick chedi laid in earth mortar and plastered, its top collapsed and about 7.5 metres still standing on a square plinth eight metres a side; to its south is an octagonal base eight metres across and only 40 centimetres high, which the register records without explaining. The smaller chedi stands outside the wall to the north on a square base five metres a side.
The department's condition note for this temple is one line and it is better news than at Wat Khun Phaen: the monument is in good condition. Between the two of them the old city offers a temple that has been looked after and a temple that has not, half a kilometre apart, with the same registration date and the same 1920s naming. BAANLYY does not represent the site and nothing here is legal or religious advice.
Monument 1, the mondop: brick, square in plan, 7.60 metres a side and 6.60 metres high, on a base of inverted-lotus mouldings, with niches for standing Buddha images on the north, south and west faces and the entrance on the east.
Inside it, the large stucco Buddha in the Pa Lelai attitude, with the stucco monkey and elephant crouching at either side — the episode in the Parileyyaka forest, and the reason for both of the temple's names. The register records that the image is said to have been broken into two parts.
Monument 2, the wihan: brick and stucco, 7 metres by 19.7 metres and 3 metres high, with two doorways on the east, standing on a plain rectangular platform 10 by 21.70 metres and 1.40 metres high.
Monument 3, the main chedi: round, brick laid in earth mortar and plastered, its upper part collapsed with about 7.5 metres standing, on a square plinth 8 metres a side. An octagonal base 8 metres across and 40 centimetres high lies to its south.
Monument 4, a second round chedi outside the precinct wall to the north, on a square base 5 metres a side and 1.5 metres high.
Monument 5, the kamphaeng kaeo: a rectangular brick precinct wall 27 by 55 metres and about 90 centimetres thick, with entrances on the east and north, and a rectangular base 2 by 3.1 metres built against its inner face on the south side.
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 ruined but consecrated site with a Buddha image in worship inside the mondop. Shoulders and knees covered; shoes off before entering the mondop; do not climb the brickwork. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Lat Ya, Amphoe Mueang Kanchanaburi, inside the walls of the old city about fifteen kilometres north-west of the modern town, roughly 500 metres from Wat Khun Phaen. |
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.
No, and the confusion is easy to fall into because the names are identical. Wat Pa Lelai Worawihan in Suphanburi is a royal monastery with a colossal seated image and is monument 0004901 in Tambon Rua Yai, Mueang Suphanburi. This Wat Pa Lelai is monument 0004833 in Tambon Lat Ya, Mueang Kanchanaburi: a ruin inside the walls of the old city of Kanchanaburi, with a stucco image in a brick mondop 7.6 metres square. Any opening hours or admission figures you find under the bare name almost certainly belong to the Suphanburi temple.
Wat Pha Ok means the split-chest temple. The Fine Arts Department's register records that about B.E. 2467 the monk Phra Khru Chuan, who was staying at Wat Khun Phaen nearby and who named several of the ruins in the old city, called this one Wat Pha Ok, and supposes the name came from the image in its mondop — a large stucco Buddha in the Pa Lelai attitude which is said to have originally broken into two parts. The present name follows the attitude of the image instead, so the temple is named after its statue twice over.
It is the Buddha seated Western-style on a raised seat with both feet down and the hands resting palm-up on the knees, representing the retreat to the Parileyyaka forest, where an elephant and a monkey attended him. That is why the Fine Arts Department's description of the mondop records a large stucco Buddha with a monkey and a crouching elephant at either side: the animals are how the attitude is identified, and they are what gave this ruin its present name.
The Fine Arts Department does not say, and that absence is itself worth noting. Its description of this temple measures five monuments in detail — the mondop, the wihan, two chedis and the precinct wall — and attaches no period label to any of them, where for the neighbouring Wat Khun Phaen it reads the prang as Ayutthaya and the sema as late Ayutthaya. So this page states no date for the fabric. The temple was registered as a national ancient monument on 8 March B.E. 2478.
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.