The old central monastery of the walled city — Wat Klang Mueang, then Wat Luang Chaiyasanthan, then Wat Bunyawat Bamrung — rebuilt by the last ruling lord of Lampang and given its royal name in B.E. 2458, with a wihan that is Bangkok in form and Lanna in its details.
วัดบุญวาทย์วิหาร · Wat Bunyawat Wihan
| Official name | วัดบุญวาทย์วิหาร — Wat Bunyawat Wihan |
|---|---|
| Where | Hua Wiang, Mueang Lampang, Lampang |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Carried in the national monument register; gazette announcement unread No gazette registration is printed, because none was found. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning's register of the Lampang old town names วัดหลวงกลางเวียง (วัดบุญวาทย์วิหาร) first among the important ancient monuments of the historic area, which is a state body describing it as a monument, and the old-town conservation area itself was declared on 13 December 2553. That is not a monument registration under the Ancient Monuments Act, and this page does not present it as one. The Royal Gazette's own site refused every request in this run. |
| Coordinates | 18.288080, 99.507935 Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning, cultural-environment register entry for วัดบุญวาทย์วิหาร |
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.
Two state sources disagree about the rebuilding and neither is chosen here. The National Office of Buddhism's provincial page dates Chao Bunyawat Wongmanit's rebuilding to B.E. 2457; the cultural-environment register dates the wihan luang to B.E. 2455 and the grant of the royal name to B.E. 2458. A third state source, the register of the Lampang old town, says of the walled city itself that it was made in B.E. 2351 in the time of Chao Ho Kham Duang Thip, which dates the quarter and not the temple. All three are on the page and none is preferred.
Wat Bunyawat Wihan stands on Thanon Bunyawat in Tambon Hua Wiang, which is to say at the centre of the old walled city of Khelang Nakhon. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning's cultural-environment register calls it the first royal temple of Lampang and records that it was formerly known simply as Wat Klang Mueang, the temple in the middle of town. The register of the old town lists it, under the name Wat Luang Klang Wiang, at the head of the important monuments inside the conservation area declared on 13 December 2553.
Its history is a sequence of rebuildings by the lords of Lampang, and the names change with each. The cultural-environment register records that in B.E. 2347 Chao Luang Kham Som rebuilt it and renamed it Wat Luang Chaiyasanthan; that Chao Bunyawat Wongmanit — the last ruling lord of Lampang, and the man whose name is on the street outside — later pulled it down and rebuilt it as Wat Bunyawat Bamrung; and that in B.E. 2458 it received the royal name it now carries. The National Office of Buddhism's provincial office adds that King Vajiravudh raised the temple to the rank of royal monastery, and dates Chao Bunyawat's rebuilding to B.E. 2457, where the register says the wihan luang went up in B.E. 2455. Those two accounts do not agree and this page does not pick between them.
The building itself is the interesting evidence. The cultural-environment register describes the wihan luang as a closed structure with a gabled roof on a base higher than a Lanna wihan would have, decorated in the manner of the central region — and yet still carrying Lanna elements, the stiff tung banner-boards and the carved brackets. That is exactly what you would expect of a monastery rebuilt in the 1910s by a northern lord under a Bangkok king: a central-Thai building with northern habits it could not quite give up. Lampang has Burmese temples from the teak money, Lanna temples from before, and this one from the years when the north was being absorbed into the Siamese state, and the three sit within a few kilometres of each other.
One small thread connects this temple to the great one at Ko Kha. The National Office of Buddhism names the abbot here as Phra Thamma Chindanayok, ecclesiastical head of Lampang province; the anthropology centre's archaeological database attributes the B.E. 2466 restoration of the Wihan Luang at Wat Phra That Lampang Luang to a Phra Thamma Chindanayok holding that same provincial office. This guide does not assert that the two records name the same man, because neither source says so, but the same title and the same office running through both files is the shape of how monastic administration actually worked in the province at that moment.
The wihan luang, dated by the state cultural-environment register to B.E. 2455: a closed hall with a gabled roof on a base higher than the Lanna norm, decorated in central-region manner.
The Lanna details that survived the rebuilding — the tung krading, the stiff banner-boards, and the carved brackets — which the same register singles out as the traces of the older tradition inside a Bangkok-styled building.
The position: the temple sits at the centre of the old walled city, in the roughly 350 rai of Tambon Hua Wiang that the state declared an old-town conservation area on 13 December 2553, so the walk to it is the walk through the historic quarter.
The name on the street outside — Thanon Bunyawat — which belongs to the same lord who rebuilt the temple, and is the quickest way to see how much of this town one family shaped.
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 | Not established from an official source. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Thanon Bunyawat, Tambon Hua Wiang, Mueang Lampang — in the centre of the old walled town and walkable from the market and the river. Coordinates from the state cultural-environment register are given on this page. |
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.
Because each ruling lord of Lampang who rebuilt it renamed it. The state cultural-environment register records that it began as Wat Klang Mueang, the temple in the middle of town; that Chao Luang Kham Som rebuilt it in B.E. 2347 as Wat Luang Chaiyasanthan; that Chao Bunyawat Wongmanit demolished and rebuilt it as Wat Bunyawat Bamrung; and that in B.E. 2458 it received the royal name Wat Bunyawat Wihan. The register of the old town still lists it under a fifth name, Wat Luang Klang Wiang.
It is a royal monastery of an unstated grade. The National Office of Buddhism's Lampang provincial office records that King Vajiravudh, Rama VI, graciously raised the temple to the rank of พระอารามหลวง, and does not print a class or a sub-rank; no state register that would supply one was reachable in this run. This guide leaves the grade empty rather than taking one from a temple directory no official body maintains, because an invented grade is worse than an omitted one.
Its present buildings are early twentieth century and its earlier history is thin. The state cultural-environment register begins its dated account with Chao Luang Kham Som's rebuilding in B.E. 2347 and puts the wihan luang at B.E. 2455. The National Office of Buddhism's provincial office says only that this is an old temple said to be not less than four hundred years old, without a document behind that figure, and this page carries it as a claim rather than a date.
Almost the whole form is not. The state cultural-environment register describes the wihan luang as a closed building with a gabled roof on a base higher than a Lanna wihan's, decorated in the manner of the central region — that is, Bangkok. What survived from the older tradition are the details the same register names: the tung krading, the stiff banner-boards, and the carved brackets. It is a good physical record of the years when the north was being drawn into the Siamese state.
No official source consulted states hours for this temple, so this guide prints none. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has no attraction page for it — the Thai-language URL returned the site's error page when opened in a rendering browser during this run, unlike three other Lampang temples whose hours were obtained the same way — and the state registers that do cover it are monument and conservation records, not visitor guides. It is a working temple in the middle of town.
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 Lampang’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.