A four-metre Dvaravati standing Buddha whose arms and head were replaced in B.E. 2460, ringed by two circles of Dvaravati sema stones the wat has since concreted over.
พระพุทธรูป (พระพุทธมงคล) วัดพุทธมงคล · Phra Phuttha Mongkhon
| Official name | พระพุทธรูป (พระพุทธมงคล) วัดพุทธมงคล — Phra Phuttha Mongkhon |
|---|---|
| Where | Khanthararat, Kanthara Wichai, Maha Sarakham |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Maha Nikaya |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument Royal Gazette vol. 52, p. 3695, 8 March B.E. 2478, where the entry reads simply a Buddha image, Amphoe Khok Phra, Tambon Khanthararat Registered, but with no land boundary ever determined — the department's own B.E. 2565 survey report leaves the registration-plan section for this monument blank, which is why there is no rai-and-ngan figure for it and why the register codes it differently from the four monuments in this batch that carry one. The 1936 instrument is the only one behind it and it was read at source. Two things in it are worth stating: the entry names no image at all, just a Buddha image at that address, so the name Phra Phuttha Mongkhon is the modern register's and the monastery's, not the instrument's; and the district it gives, Amphoe Khok Phra, is flagged in the survey report as the name at that time and is now Amphoe Kanthara Wichai. The registered monument is the image, not the monastery around it. |
| Coordinates | 16.308584, 103.300557 Fine Arts Department national monument register, monument id 0002912, recorded as a GPS reading, and consistent with the UTM grid reference 48Q 318436E 1803833N printed in the department's B.E. 2565 survey report. Checked against the address both sources state, Ban Sa, Moo 2, Tambon Khanthararat, Amphoe Kanthara Wichai, and against the address the National Office of Buddhism's provincial office gives for the monastery. |
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 monastery and the image are different ages and this page keeps them apart. The provincial office's B.E. 2245 settlement date is for the wat; the fourteenth-to-sixteenth-Buddhist-century range is for the image, which is some eight centuries older and was standing here long before any monastery was recorded around it.
The monastery's own people call it Wat Phra Yuen, the temple of the standing Buddha, and that tells you where the attention goes. The image is about four metres tall, and the Fine Arts Department's survey report is specific about it: carved from grey sandstone, Dvaravati art, right hand raised at the abdomen, left hand held along the body, the hem of the robe showing at the thigh, and standing within the ancient walled town of Kanthara Wichai. It names it as one of the two tutelary images of the district alongside Phra Phuttha Ming Mueang at Wat Suwannawat. The National Office of Buddhism's provincial office reaches the same four-metre height and the same fourteenth-to-sixteenth-Buddhist-century range independently, which is about as firm as dating gets for a sculpture with no inscription.
There is one disagreement between the state sources and it is about the stone. The survey report says grey sandstone; the Tourism Authority says the pair were both made of red sandstone. Both are state sources, the survey report is the more technical, and neither is adopted here as settled. What the survey does settle is that the image is not entirely ancient: it had been damaged, and in B.E. 2460 the wat and lay donors added new arms and a new head in place of the originals that had broken away. The Dvaravati carving is the body.
The setting is better than the image's condition and is being lost. The survey records that the image now stands on the bodhi-tree court in the middle of the monastery, and that around that court Dvaravati stone sema were planted in two concentric rings at all eight directions. Then it records what has happened to them: the wat has poured a concrete floor across the court, so the sema are buried beneath it with only their tops showing a little. Two forms are noted, plain flat slabs and square posts of barrel or redented shape. That is a working monastery making its courtyard usable, and it is also eight directions of Dvaravati boundary marking going under screed.
Look at the 1936 Royal Gazette page and you find something slightly startling: the entry is just a Buddha image, at Amphoe Khok Phra, Tambon Khanthararat. No name, no description. The names everyone uses now all post-date the instrument that protects it, and the district name in it has moved on too — Khok Phra survives as the subdistrict next door, which is where this image's twin stands. Nor did the instrument set a land boundary, and none has been set since; the survey report leaves that section blank. So the protected thing is the image itself, which governs what may be built nearby and what consents are needed. The monastery around it is a community wat of the Maha Nikaya order, recorded by the provincial office as settled in B.E. 2245 with its ordination boundary granted on 6 August B.E. 2506 — roughly eight centuries younger than what stands in its courtyard. The most recent survey of the site was made in B.E. 2556 by the Archaeology Group of Fine Arts Department Office 9 in Khon Kaen, under the second phase of its upper Chi basin project.
Phra Phuttha Mongkhon itself: a standing Buddha in sandstone about four metres tall, right hand raised at the abdomen, left hand along the body, the hem of the robe visible at the thigh.
New arms and a new head, added in B.E. 2460 by the wat and lay donors in place of the originals that had broken away — so the ancient carving is the body.
The bodhi-tree court the image now stands on, in the middle of the monastery.
Dvaravati stone sema set in two concentric rings at all eight directions around that court, in two forms — plain flat slabs and square posts of barrel or redented shape — now mostly buried under the concrete the wat has poured, with only their tops showing.
A working community monastery of the Maha Nikaya order, recorded as settled in B.E. 2245 with its ordination boundary granted in B.E. 2506.
The twin image, Phra Phuttha Ming Mueang, about four kilometres north at Wat Suwannawat in Tambon Khok Phra.
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 | An active monastery with a venerated image. Cover shoulders and knees, take shoes off where shoes come off, and do not pose above the Buddha image. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | At Ban Sa, Moo 2, Thinanon Road, Tambon Khanthararat, Amphoe Kanthara Wichai, on the Maha Sarakham to Kalasin road, reached before the district town when heading north. |
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.
The image. The 1936 Royal Gazette entry protects a Buddha image at that address, and no land boundary has ever been determined around it — the Fine Arts Department's own survey report leaves that section blank — which is why no rai-and-ngan figure exists here.
The body. The Fine Arts Department's survey report records that in B.E. 2460 the wat and lay donors added new arms and a new head in place of the originals, which had broken off.
About four metres. The survey report says grey sandstone; the Tourism Authority says red sandstone for both of the Kanthara Wichai images. This page records the disagreement rather than choosing.
Both the Fine Arts Department and the National Office of Buddhism's provincial office place it in the fourteenth to sixteenth Buddhist century, in late Dvaravati art mixed with local tradition. Two state bodies reaching that range separately is the strongest dating in this batch.
Dvaravati sema, boundary stones, planted in two concentric rings at all eight directions around the bodhi-tree court. The wat has since concreted the court, so most are buried with only their tops showing.
Because of the image. Phra Yuen means the standing Buddha, and it is the name the village uses for the monastery, alongside the official Wat Phuttha Mongkhon.
Not remotely. The provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism records the wat as settled in B.E. 2245 and its ordination boundary as granted on 6 August B.E. 2506 — roughly eight centuries after the image was carved.
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 Maha Sarakham’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.