A village ordination hall at Ban Sawathi, ten-odd kilometres north-west of Khon Kaen, registered as a monument in 2001 for its wall paintings. Hup taem cover the walls inside and out — Sinsai, the Vessantara Jataka and a hell scene — and the Tourism Authority states plainly that women may not go inside.
สิมวัดไชยศรี (อุโบสถ) · Sim Wat Chai Si
| Official name | สิมวัดไชยศรี (อุโบสถ) — Sim Wat Chai Si |
|---|---|
| Where | Sawathi, Mueang Khon Kaen, 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. 118, special part 127 ง, p. 13, 21 December B.E. 2544 — item 2 of a six-item instrument, registering โบราณสถานสิมวัดไชยศรี (อุโบสถ) บ้านสาวะถี หมู่ ๘ ตำบลสาวะถี อำเภอเมืองขอนแก่น at 3 ngan 29.7 square wa One instrument, downloaded from the Fine Arts Department's mirror and read by eye in this run: ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนและกำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน, made under section 7 of the Act on Ancient Monuments B.E. 2504, announced ๒๐ สิงหาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๔ over the signature of นาวาอากาศเอก อาวุธ เงินชูกลิ่น as อธิบดีกรมศิลปากร. It covers six monuments in Khon Kaen and Nong Bua Lamphu; four of the six are in Khon Kaen and three of those four are ordination halls, two of which are on these pages. The area given in the instrument, ๓ งาน ๒๙.๗ ตารางวา, matches the register's land parcel exactly. Note what is registered: the SIM, not the temple. The register's ownership and custody fields both name วัดไชยศรี. |
| Coordinates | 16.508939, 102.696734 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0002303 |
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 one thing that would date it — an inscription, a visungkhamasima grant, a donor record — was not found in any official source reached. The Tourism Authority's 'more than a hundred years' is the only age statement on the page and it is printed as the loose phrase it is.
Wat Chai Si stands at Ban Sawathi, Moo 8, in Tambon Sawathi, in Amphoe Mueang Khon Kaen. The building that matters is not the temple but the sim inside it — the ordination hall — and the Fine Arts Department registered exactly that in 2001: the sim, at three ngan and 29.7 square wa, with the temple named as its owner and custodian rather than as the thing protected.
What the department registered it for is on its walls. Hup taem — the Isan word for wall painting — cover the sim inside and out, and the department's own summary of the subject matter is specific: the outer wall carries the Vessantara Jataka and a hell scene; the inner walls carry Sinsai, the Vessantara Jataka and the past Buddhas. The Tourism Authority of Thailand divides them slightly differently, putting the Vessantara Jataka, Sinsai, devas, people and animals inside and the Vessantara Jataka, Sinsai, the seven pits of hell and soldiers standing guard at the door outside. Both are state accounts and both are given here; where they agree — that Sinsai and the Vessantara Jataka are the two great cycles, and that hell is painted on the outside — is where a visitor can rely on it.
Sinsai is worth knowing before you go. It is a Lao verse romance, not a canonical Buddhist text, and painting it on the walls of an ordination hall is a statement about whose literature this is. Khon Kaen has adopted it as a civic emblem in recent decades, and the Tourism Authority's own page for this temple is titled for it. A visitor who arrives expecting jataka scenes and nothing else will misread half the building.
The sim itself is a solid-walled village type on a high base, with a front porch, and the department's description of it is good on the details that survive and honest about the one that did not. The base is pierced with rectangular openings stepped back in three tiers all the way round on all four sides. The stair is made as a standing horse in stucco — not the lion or the naga that a visitor from central Thailand would expect. The front porch wall was originally pierced with arched openings instead of windows; in B.E. 2525 that wall was taken out to widen the entrance for a naga staircase, and it is gone. A light timber lattice fence stands as the boundary wall around the sim.
The roof is not the original either, and the reason for that is the paintings. The department's condition note records that the old roof was removed and the walls built up higher on all four sides to carry a tall gabled roof with eaves skirts running round all four, in order to protect the hup taem from sun and rain. That is a compromise — the silhouette is not what the builders made — and it is why the paintings are still legible.
One practical fact belongs at the top of a visitor's mind and comes from the Tourism Authority rather than from folklore: women may not enter the ordination hall. The outer walls, which carry a large share of the painting, are open to everyone. BAANLYY does not represent this temple and nothing here is legal or religious advice.
The hup taem — wall paintings inside and out. The Fine Arts Department gives the outer subject as the Vessantara Jataka and a hell scene and the inner as Sinsai, the Vessantara Jataka and the past Buddhas; the Tourism Authority gives the outer as the Vessantara Jataka, Sinsai, the seven pits of hell and soldiers guarding the door, and the inner as the Vessantara Jataka, Sinsai, and figures of devas, people and animals.
The stair, made as a standing horse modelled in stucco — the Fine Arts Department's own description, and an unusual choice.
The base of the sim, pierced with rectangular openings stepped back in three receding tiers along all four sides.
The naga staircase at the front, which is why the original porch wall is missing: the department records that the arched openings that once stood in that wall were demolished in B.E. 2525 to widen the entrance for it.
The roof, which is a conservation measure rather than an original: the walls were raised on all four sides to carry a tall gable with eaves skirts all round, specifically to keep sun and rain off the paintings.
The boundary wall around the sim, made as an open timber lattice fence.
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 temple. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off. The Tourism Authority of Thailand states that women may not enter the ordination hall; the outer walls, which carry much of the painting, are open to everyone. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Ban Sawathi, Moo 8, Tambon Sawathi, Amphoe Mueang Khon Kaen, Khon Kaen 40000, north-west of the city. The Tourism Authority lists parking and toilets on site and gives the temple's contact email as wchaisri139@gmail.com. The Fine Arts Department's register gives the monument's position as 16.508939 N, 102.696734 E. |
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. The Tourism Authority of Thailand states on its page for this temple that women may not enter the ordination hall — ห้ามสุภาพสตรีเข้าไปภายในพระอุโบสถ. The outer walls carry a large share of the painting, including the Sinsai and hell scenes, and are open to everyone.
A Lao verse romance — Sang Sinchai — rather than a canonical Buddhist text, and the reason this sim is well known. Both the Fine Arts Department and the Tourism Authority record that it is painted here alongside the Vessantara Jataka, inside and out. Painting a secular epic on the walls of an ordination hall is a statement about whose literature this is, and Khon Kaen has since taken Sinsai as a civic emblem.
Not established. No state source read for this page gives a founding year, a donor or a craftsman. The Tourism Authority says only that it is more than a hundred years old, and this page does not turn that phrase into a date.
The sim, not the temple. The instrument of 21 December B.E. 2544 registers โบราณสถานสิมวัดไชยศรี (อุโบสถ) with a plot of 3 ngan and 29.7 square wa, and the Fine Arts Department's register names Wat Chai Si as the owner and custodian of that monument rather than as the monument itself.
Because it is a conservation measure. The Fine Arts Department's condition note records that the old roof was taken off and the walls raised on all four sides to carry a tall gable with eaves skirts running right round, in order to shelter the hup taem from sun and rain. The silhouette is not what the builders made; the paintings survive because of it.
The Fine Arts Department describes the stair as made in the form of a standing horse in stucco. It offers no explanation, and none is invented here. It is not the lion or the naga a visitor from central Thailand would expect — though a naga staircase was added at the front in B.E. 2525, at the cost of the original porch wall.
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.