The stupa that Khon Kaen takes its name from, in a working temple at Ban Kham in Amphoe Nam Phong. It is Lan Xang in form, its founding date is not established and the two state bodies that comment on it disagree by three centuries, and the 1982 registration covered only 57 square wa — the stupa alone — until a later survey found the vihara and the boundary wall outside the line.
พระธาตุขามแก่น (วัดเจติยภูมิ) · Phra That Kham Kaen, Wat Chetiyaphum
| Official name | พระธาตุขามแก่น (วัดเจติยภูมิ) — Phra That Kham Kaen, Wat Chetiyaphum |
|---|---|
| Where | Ban Kham, Nam Phong, Khon Kaen |
| 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. 99, part 172 (special issue), p. 20, 18 November B.E. 2525 (the registration, 57 square wa); and vol. 104, part 18 (special issue), p. 12, 1 February B.E. 2530 (the boundary redrawn to 2 rai 62 square wa) Two instruments, both downloaded from the Fine Arts Department's mirror and read by eye in this run. The first — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนโบราณสถาน, made under section 7 of the Act on Ancient Monuments B.E. 2504, announced ๒๓ กันยายน ๒๕๒๕ over the signature of ไพรัช ชุติกุล as รองอธิบดี รักษาราชการแทนอธิบดีกรมศิลปากร — registers พระธาตุขามแก่น (วัดเจติยภูมิ) ตำบลบ้านขาม อำเภอน้ำพอง จังหวัดขอนแก่น over an area of just ๕๗ ตารางวา, which is the stupa and almost nothing else. The second — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง กำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน, announced ๘ มกราคม ๒๕๓๐ by ทวีศักดิ์ เสนาณรงค์ as อธิบดี — recites that first registration and then says why it is being replaced: a further survey of the ground outside the line found more monuments, ปรากฏว่าได้พบโบราณสถานเพิ่มขึ้น เช่น วิหาร เจดีย์ และกำแพงแก้ว, so the boundary is redrawn at ๒ ไร่ ๖๒ ตารางวา to take them in. The register's land parcel carries 2 rai 0 ngan 62 square wa and codes the row at status 5. The survey plan attached to the 1987 order, also read here, marks the chedi, the vihara, the boundary wall, the ku and the Arahant stupa inside that line. |
| Coordinates | 16.562753, 102.951831 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0002346 |
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 name of the province is popularly derived from this stupa. The Fine Arts Department's own register records that in the year after the renaming there was a campaign — มีการรณรงค์ — to establish that the name Khon Kaen was a corruption of Kham Kaen, and that this became the accepted origin of the province's name. The register reports the campaign; it does not endorse the etymology, and neither does this page.
Phra That Kham Kaen stands in the courtyard of Wat Chetiyaphum at Ban Kham, in Tambon Ban Kham, Amphoe Nam Phong, about twelve kilometres out of Khon Kaen city on the Kalasin road. It is a small monument by the standards of this guide and it matters more than its size, because it is the thing the province is named after and because the record around it is unusually clear about what is known and what is told.
What is told is the tamarind. Both the Fine Arts Department and the Tourism Authority of Thailand set out the same chronicle account and both mark it as one: a ruler of Moriya carrying ashes of the Buddha towards Phra That Phanom, a night's halt at a knoll where the relic rested on a dead tamarind stump, a wasted journey to Phu Kamphra where the great stupa was found already finished, and on the way back a dead tree in leaf. The stupa was built over the tree. The nine Arahants who travelled with the relic were commemorated afterwards in a second, much smaller stupa to the east. Nothing in that account is dated, and nothing in it rests on an instrument, an inscription or an excavation read for this page.
What the record shows is a good deal less and is worth stating plainly. The Fine Arts Department reads the monument as Lan Xang work in the family of Phra That Si Song Rak, supposes a foundation in the reign of Setthathirath in about the 22nd Buddhist century, and then says that the shape standing today, after repeated restoration, belongs to about the 24th to 25th. The Tourism Authority of Thailand simply says it was built about the beginning of the 25th Buddhist century. Those are not the same claim, and this page prints both rather than choosing between two arms of the same state.
They also disagree about its height, which is easier to check and no less unresolved. The department measures the base at eleven metres a side and the whole at about twenty-four metres from the ground to the tip of the finial, and breaks that down: two tiers of the reruen that, about 4.50 metres and 3.50 metres, making about eight metres of body, then a three-stage cone and a five-tier metal chatra. The Tourism Authority says the chedi stands about ten metres high. Both figures are on this page.
The state's protection of the place arrives late and in two pieces. On 23 September B.E. 2525 the Director-General's office registered the monument under section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act — an area of fifty-seven square wa, which is the stupa and the ground it stands on and essentially nothing more. Four years later the department went back and surveyed outside that line, and the order of 8 January B.E. 2530 says in its own words what it found: further monuments, a vihara, a chedi and a boundary wall. The boundary was redrawn at two rai and sixty-two square wa to take them in. Both instruments were read from the scans for this page, and the plan attached to the second marks each of those buildings inside the new line.
The temple is a living one and the year turns on the festival of homage to the stupa, which the Fine Arts Department records as running from 13 to 15 April, when both stupas are bathed and the people of Ban Kham and the villages around say the words the department reproduces: สาธุญาคูทั้งเก้า เจ้ามหาธาตุ. BAANLYY does not represent this temple and nothing here is legal or religious advice.
The stupa itself — a square Lan Xang that on a flaring base of two inverted-lotus tiers, with a redented carambola-lobed crown, a three-stage cone above it and a five-tier metal chatra at the top. The Fine Arts Department gives the base as 11 metres a side and the whole as about 24 metres to the finial; the Tourism Authority of Thailand says about 10 metres. Both are official and they are printed as they stand.
The low boundary wall around it, about 1.20 metres high, per the Fine Arts Department.
Phra That Arahant, the small stupa east of the main one — a square brick-and-mortar that, 1.14 metres to a side and about 3.50 metres high, on an upturned lotus base, inside its own 5-metre wall with the entrance left open on the west side.
The old sim east of the stupa, which the Tourism Authority describes as built together with it in former times: Lan Xang in form, with fretted woodwork on the gable, cho fa, bai raka and hang hong finials, and a carved rong phueng valance over the front arch.
The soldiers at the door — and a small disagreement about them. The Fine Arts Department describes the vihara front as decorated with low-relief stucco of soldiers carrying rifles on either side of the doorway; the Tourism Authority describes the wall by the sim door as carrying a folk painting of a policeman with a long rifle serving as a door guardian. The two state bodies differ on the medium and on the uniform.
The ta wen sun-disc motif in wood on the vihara's gable, per the Fine Arts Department.
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 temple as well as a monument. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before entering the sim, and the stupa is a place of veneration rather than an exhibit. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Ban Kham, Moo 1, Tambon Ban Kham, Amphoe Nam Phong, Khon Kaen 40140. The Tourism Authority of Thailand gives the route as Highway 209, the Khon Kaen–Kalasin road, about 12 km from the city, then left into Ban Khok Si after crossing the Nam Phong and about 14 km further; or by the Kasikon Thung Sang road through Khai Si Phatcharin and Ban Khok Tha to the bridge over the Nam Phong, right at the sign for about 10 km. It lists parking and toilets on site and gives the contact number as +66 4343 6011. |
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.
That is the popular derivation and the record for it is thinner than the story suggests. The Fine Arts Department's own register says the stupa was called Phra That Ban Kham until about B.E. 2498, when it was renamed Phra That Kham Kaen and Wat Ban Kham became Wat Chetiyaphum — and that in the following year a campaign was run to establish that the name Khon Kaen was a corruption of Kham Kaen. The department records the campaign. It does not vouch for the etymology, and neither does this page.
Not established, and two arms of the Thai state give answers three centuries apart. The Fine Arts Department reads it as Lan Xang work and supposes a foundation under Setthathirath in about the 22nd Buddhist century, with the present form dating to about the 24th–25th after repeated restoration. The Tourism Authority of Thailand says it was built about the beginning of the 25th Buddhist century. Neither cites a document. The chronicle account of the ruler of Moriya and the tamarind stump is told by both as a chronicle account and carries no date at all.
The two state sources disagree. The Fine Arts Department gives about 24 metres from the ground to the tip of the finial, on a base 11 metres square, and itemises the parts to reach that figure. The Tourism Authority of Thailand says about 10 metres. This page prints both.
Because the first registration covered the stupa alone. The instrument of 18 November B.E. 2525 registered an area of fifty-seven square wa. A later survey found that a vihara, a chedi and a boundary wall stood outside that line, and the order of 1 February B.E. 2530 said so and redrew the boundary at two rai and sixty-two square wa. That second figure is the one the register carries now.
Phra That Arahant, also called Phra That Noi. The Fine Arts Department describes it as a square brick-and-mortar that 1.14 metres to a side and about 3.50 metres high on an upturned-lotus base, inside its own five-metre boundary wall with the entrance left open on the west. Tradition holds that it was raised for the remains of the nine Arahants who carried the relic; that is the chronicle account, told as one.
The Fine Arts Department records that the people of Ban Kham and the neighbouring villages hold the homage to Phra That Kham Kaen every year from 13 to 15 April — the Songkran days — and that what they do is bathe both stupas, the great one and the small Phra That Arahant east of it. The department also reproduces the words of the offering: สาธุญาคูทั้งเก้า เจ้ามหาธาตุ, which addresses the nine Arahants of the chronicle account alongside the relic itself. It is a village observance rather than a provincial spectacle, and the department describes it as held jointly by Ban Kham and the villages around it rather than organised by the state.
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 Khon Kaen’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.