A late twentieth-century monastery on the Laem Sak headland whose Sri Lankan-style white relic chedi, raised in 2010, gave it the Maha That in its name — and whose own official account of its beginnings does not quite agree with itself.
วัดมหาธาตุแหลมสัก · Wat Maha That Laem Sak
| Official name | วัดมหาธาตุแหลมสัก — Wat Maha That Laem Sak |
|---|---|
| Where | Laem Sak, Ao Luek, Krabi |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Not established. |
Laem Sak, Ao Luek, Krabi
The exact location has not been confirmed yet.
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 PROVINCIAL OFFICE'S OWN ACCOUNT DOES NOT SIT COMFORTABLY WITH ITSELF. It gives official temple status in B.E. 2517 (1974) but describes the principal buildings as going up in B.E. 2527 (1984), a decade later, and the wandering-monk period as beginning around B.E. 2490 (1947). Nothing read for this page reconciles the three, and rather than choose one and present a tidy sequence, all three are printed as that office gives them.
Laem Sak is a headland at the end of Ao Luek district where the limestone drops into the water and a fishing village sits at the base of the cliffs — one of the most striking pieces of coast in Krabi and about an hour and twenty minutes from Krabi town by the provincial office's own reckoning. Wat Maha That Laem Sak sits on it. The temple is recent, and the Krabi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism is straightforward about that: it records official temple status in B.E. 2517 (1974) and the construction of the meditation hall, refectory and multipurpose building in B.E. 2527 (1984).
The beginning it describes is older and vaguer, and the office does not dress it up as record. The land is said to have been empty around B.E. 2490 (1947), used periodically by thudong monks — wandering forest monks who travel with an umbrella tent — who would stop and stay for a while before moving on. Local residents, on this account, eventually asked for a permanent foundation on the spot. That is a very common origin story for a southern Thai coastal temple and it may well be exactly what happened; it is told here as what it is rather than converted into a founding date.
Those three dates do not fit together neatly, and this page does not pretend otherwise. Official temple status in 1974 followed by principal buildings only in 1984 is a ten-year gap the source does not explain, and the 1947 wandering-monk period sits loose from both. Where a state source contradicts itself, this guide prints the contradiction rather than choosing the version that reads best — the alternative is a clean narrative that nobody can check.
The thing that changed the temple's standing, and its name, came in B.E. 2553 (2010), when the community built a white chedi in a Sri Lankan idiom to enshrine relics of the Buddha. It is that enshrinement that converted Wat Laem Sak into Wat Maha That Laem Sak: mahathat means great relic, and it is a name a Thai temple takes when it holds one. The provincial office records the temple as a place people come to make merit in connection with work, money and moral resolve, and — unusually among the temples in this file — it does state practical access: open daily from 08:00 to 18:00, with no entrance charge.
The white relic chedi, built in B.E. 2553 (2010) in a Sri Lankan architectural idiom to enshrine relics of the Buddha. The enshrinement is what gave the temple the Maha That in its name, and the bell-profile white stupa is visually unlike anything else in Krabi.
The headland itself, which is inseparable from the temple: limestone cliffs falling straight into the Andaman, the Laem Sak fishing village below, and views out over the bay from the temple ground.
The working monastic buildings the provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism dates to B.E. 2527 (1984) — the meditation hall, the refectory and the multipurpose hall. They are plain and they are the fabric of the place; the chedi is the exception rather than the character.
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 | 08:00–18:00 daily, per the Krabi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism. |
|---|---|
| Admission | Thai nationals: free. Foreign visitors: 0 baht. |
| Dress | A working monastery. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off in the halls and on the chedi platform. The headland is windy and exposed, which is not a reason to arrive in beachwear from the nearby coast. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Laem Sak subdistrict, Ao Luek district, on the headland beyond Ao Luek town. The provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism gives the journey from Krabi town as roughly 60 kilometres and about one hour twenty minutes. |
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.
Mahathat means great relic, and it is a name a Thai temple takes when it enshrines relics of the Buddha. The Krabi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism records that this temple built a white chedi in a Sri Lankan idiom in B.E. 2553 (2010) to hold such relics, and that the name changed from Wat Laem Sak to Wat Maha That Laem Sak as a result of that enshrinement.
Recent. The provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism records official temple status in B.E. 2517 (1974) and the principal buildings in B.E. 2527 (1984), with a looser account of wandering monks using the open land from around B.E. 2490 (1947). Those three dates do not reconcile neatly in that office's own telling, and this page prints all three rather than choosing one.
The Krabi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism records the temple as open daily from 08:00 to 18:00 with no entrance charge. That is a state source rather than a travel listing, which is worth saying because it is one of the few visiting figures in this province that comes from one. Hours change; confirm before planning a long drive around them.
The provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism gives roughly 60 kilometres and about one hour twenty minutes, out through Ao Luek town and onto the Laem Sak headland. It is a genuine excursion rather than a stop, and the headland and fishing village below the temple are a substantial part of the reason to make it.
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 Krabi’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.