A small walled monastery in Ko Kha with a seventeenth-century open wihan under a triple-tiered roof and a stucco gate arch closely related to the one at Lampang Luang — a registered monument that almost no visitor to the province reaches.
วัดเสลารัตนปัพพะตาราม (วัดไหล่หิน) · Wat Selarattanapappataram, Wat Lai Hin
| Official name | วัดเสลารัตนปัพพะตาราม (วัดไหล่หิน) — Wat Selarattanapappataram, Wat Lai Hin |
|---|---|
| Where | Lai Hin, Ko Kha, Lampang |
| 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. 97, part 195, 14 October B.E. 2523 The citation is the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning's, whose cultural-environment register states that the Fine Arts Department announced the registration of Wat Lai Hin as an ancient monument with a defined boundary in ราชกิจจานุเบกษา เล่มที่ 97 ตอนที่ 195 of 14 October B.E. 2523. Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, six kilometres away in the same district, has a boundary announcement in the same volume — part 163, of 21 October B.E. 2523 — so both Ko Kha monuments were dealt with in one departmental year. The two references do not sit together neatly, however: the higher part number carries the earlier date, which should not happen in a sequentially published gazette, so at least one of the two figures as reported is wrong. Neither issue was opened in this run, because the Royal Gazette's own site refused every request, and this guide flags the inconsistency rather than tidying it away. |
| Coordinates | 18.210543, 99.340666 Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning, cultural-environment register entry for วัดเสลารัตนปัพพะตาราม (วัดไหล่หิน) |
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.
This is the tidiest chronology of the six temples in this province: a dated seventeenth-century campaign under a named abbot, and a dated twentieth-century registration. What is missing is anything about the site before Phra Maha Pa Kesorn Panyo, and no source consulted supplies it.
Wat Lai Hin sits in Tambon Lai Hin in Ko Kha district, about six kilometres west of Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, and it is the building most worth the detour in this province. Its full name is Wat Selarattanapappataram; everybody calls it Wat Lai Hin or Wat Lai Hin Luang. It is small, walled, and almost entirely of its own period, which is what makes it useful: at Lampang Luang the visitor sees the grandest version of Lanna monastic architecture, and here, twenty minutes away, the same tradition at ordinary scale.
The dated history is compact and comes from a single state register. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning's cultural-environment record places the main building campaign in the twenty-third Buddhist century, under an abbot it names as Phra Maha Pa Kesorn Panyo, and gives the completion of the work as B.E. 2226. That is the second half of the seventeenth century of the common era, when Lanna was under Burmese rule and out of the story that Thai national history usually tells — which is one reason this period of northern building is under-visited as well as under-written.
The wihan is an open hall, its roof in three tiers of two laps each, tiled in fired clay tiles with cut ends. Open-sided halls of this kind are the older northern form: no walls between the columns, the interior continuous with the courtyard, the roof doing all the work of enclosure. Behind it stands a Lanna chedi, believed by the register's own account to hold relics of the Buddha. The element that draws specialists, though, is the gate arch — the sum pratu khong — which the register says closely resembles the one at Wat Phra That Lampang Luang while differing in its decoration. Two stucco gate arches of the same family, six kilometres apart, one on the province's great monument and one on a village temple, is about as clear a demonstration of a regional workshop tradition as this kind of evidence gets.
The Fine Arts Department registered the monument with a defined boundary on 14 October B.E. 2523, and the boundary announcement for Lampang Luang sits in the same volume of the Royal Gazette, so both Ko Kha monuments were handled in one departmental year. The two references as reported do not quite line up — the higher part number carries the earlier date — and this page says so rather than smoothing it, because neither issue could be opened. What the page also cannot tell a visitor is when the temple opens: no state source publishes hours for it at all.
The wihan: an open-sided hall with a roof in three tiers of two laps, covered in fired clay tiles with cut ends — the older Lanna form, with the roof rather than walls doing the enclosing.
The sum pratu khong, the stucco gate arch, which the state cultural-environment register describes as closely resembling the arch at Wat Phra That Lampang Luang with differences in its decoration. Seeing both in one day is the single best reason to make this trip.
The Lanna chedi behind the wihan, believed by the register to contain relics.
The walled compound itself, small and largely of one period, which is what a Lanna village monastery looked like at ordinary scale rather than at royal scale.
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 | Tambon Lai Hin, Ko Kha district, Lampang — roughly six kilometres west of Wat Phra That Lampang Luang and best combined with it in one trip out of Lampang town. 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.
Its principal buildings are seventeenth century. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning's cultural-environment register places the main construction and restoration campaign in the twenty-third Buddhist century under an abbot named Phra Maha Pa Kesorn Panyo, and gives the completion of that work as B.E. 2226. Nothing reachable in this run says what was on the site before then, so this page dates the campaign and leaves the origin open.
Because the state register says it does, and the resemblance is the most interesting thing about the building. The cultural-environment record describes the sum pratu khong at Wat Lai Hin as closely resembling the arch at Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, with differences in the decoration. The two temples are about six kilometres apart in the same district, which makes the pair reasonable evidence of a shared regional workshop tradition in stucco rather than a coincidence of taste.
Yes. The cultural-environment register states that the Fine Arts Department announced the registration of Wat Lai Hin as an ancient monument with a defined boundary in the Royal Gazette, volume 97, part 195, of 14 October B.E. 2523. The boundary announcement for Wat Phra That Lampang Luang appears in part 163 of the same volume, dated 21 October, so both Ko Kha monuments belong to one departmental year — though the higher part number carrying the earlier date means one of the two figures as reported must be wrong. Neither gazette issue was opened in this run.
No official source states either, so this guide prints neither. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has no attraction page for this temple — both the obvious Thai-language URLs returned the site's error page when opened in a rendering browser during this run — and the state register that does cover it is a monuments register, not a visitor guide. Rather than repeat an opening time from a travel blog, this page records that the hours could not be confirmed.
That is exactly when it is worth going. Lampang Luang is the grandest surviving example of Lanna monastic architecture and Wat Lai Hin is the same tradition at village scale, six kilometres away, largely of one seventeenth-century period, with a gate arch the state register itself connects to the great one. Seeing the pair in a single afternoon tells you more about how northern temples were actually built than either does alone.
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.