An ordinary monastery on the Nakhon Chai Si river, internationally known for sak yant tattooing and for its late abbot Luang Pho Poen, whose own records document a well-dated twentieth century and an origin nobody has fixed.
วัดบางพระ · Wat Bang Phra
| Official name | วัดบางพระ — Wat Bang Phra |
|---|---|
| Where | Bang Kaeo Fa, Nakhon Chai Si, Nakhon Pathom |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Maha Nikaya (มหานิกาย), per the Sangha Region 14 temple register |
| Ancient monument | Not established. |
Bang Kaeo Fa, Nakhon Chai Si, Nakhon Pathom
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.
This is the thinnest documentary record of the six temples in this province, and the reason is worth saying: almost everything written in English about Wat Bang Phra is travel writing about its tattoos, and none of it is usable here. What can be sourced is an ordinary monastery with an unusually well-recorded twentieth century and an undated origin.
Wat Bang Phra is at 1 Mu 3 in Tambon Bang Kaeo Fa, on the Nakhon Chai Si river in Nakhon Chai Si district, and villagers still call it by its older name, Wat Pak Khlong Bang Phra — the temple at the mouth of the Bang Phra canal. It is not a royal monastery; the Sangha's register carries it as a วัดราษฎร์. Two things need separating at the outset. There is a วัดกลางบางพระ in the same district, in a differently named subdistrict, and it is a different temple with a different famous image; and there is a Wat Bang Phra Worawihan elsewhere in the country that is a royal temple. Neither is this one.
Its age is not established. The Tourism Authority of Thailand supposes an Ayutthaya-period origin around B.E. 2220 and marks the claim as supposition; the Sangha register's own founding and sema fields are blank; and no gazette registration of any structure here could be found. What the register does carry is an abbot succession running from the late eighteenth century onward, and a well-documented modern building history: the present ordination hall was raised under Chao Athikan Him Inthachoto in the bend of the Nakhon Chai Si river and completed in B.E. 2470, and was later rebuilt in concrete under Luang Pho Poen.
Luang Pho Poen Thitakuno is the reason the temple is known outside its district, and his dates are firm. Born on 12 August B.E. 2466 in this same subdistrict, the ninth of ten children; ordained here on 23 May B.E. 2491; abbot of temples in Kanchanaburi and at Khok Khema before returning as abbot of Wat Bang Phra on 25 August B.E. 2518; given the title Phra Khru Thapanakit Sunthon on 2 December B.E. 2523 and Phra Udom Prachanat on 5 December B.E. 2537; awarded an honorary doctorate in Buddhist studies by Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University on 7 May B.E. 2538; and dead on 30 June B.E. 2545, in his seventy-ninth year and his fifty-fourth as a monk. His body is preserved and kept at the temple, which is itself an object of veneration here. The Sangha register's own abbot list dates his return a year earlier, in B.E. 2517, and that discrepancy is left visible rather than smoothed over.
What brings people from outside Thailand is sak yant, the yantra tattooing done at this temple, and it should be described accurately and without spectacle. It is a devotional practice with a teacher–pupil structure, undertaken by people who hold that the marks confer protection and are bound to precepts they undertake to keep. The Tourism Authority of Thailand's page notes the temple's standing among people who seek yantra tattoos and attributes the practice to the current abbot, Luang Pho Samang Papassaro. The annual master-honouring ceremony draws very large numbers. This guide does not print a date for it, because no source it is prepared to cite gives one: the reckoning is by the lunar calendar, and every specific date found came from travel press.
The rest of the compound is quietly interesting. The old ordination hall is about four by eight wa with a fired-clay tile roof and a red sandstone principal image in the attitude of subduing Mara, thirty inches across the lap, known here as Luang Pho Sitthi Mongkhon and flanked by six further images; its murals show the assembly of the gods and scenes from the previous lives, retouched in the reign of King Mongkut, and its Mara Phachon panel is painted in the four-colour palette of mid-Ayutthaya work. In front, facing the river, stands a brick shrine built in the shape of a boat with chedis at its centre.
The old ordination hall, about four by eight wa with a fired-clay tile roof, brick and plaster walls and a two-tiered roof with chofa and bai raka, holding a red sandstone image in the attitude of subduing Mara with a lap thirty inches across, known as Luang Pho Sitthi Mongkhon and flanked by six further images.
The murals inside it: the assembly of the gods and scenes from the previous lives, retouched in the reign of King Mongkut, including a Mara Phachon panel in the white, black, red and pale green palette that the Sangha register reads as mid-Ayutthaya.
The newer ordination hall completed in B.E. 2470 under Chao Athikan Him Inthachoto and rebuilt in concrete under Luang Pho Poen, holding the image known as Luang Pho To.
The brick shrine built in the form of a boat, with chedis at its centre, standing in front of the temple and facing the Nakhon Chai Si river.
The replica of the Buddha's footprint, cast in metal in B.E. 2469 and measuring 1.10 by 4.20 metres, the relic from Sri Lanka, and the memorial figures of the earlier abbots Luang Pu Him, Luang Pu Thong Yu and Luang Pu Plian.
The preserved body of Luang Pho Poen Thitakuno, kept at the temple and venerated there.
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 | The Tourism Authority of Thailand's page, read through a rendering browser, gives 07.00–18.00 for visiting. The temple's own site separately publishes 07.00–16.30 for its Na Na Thong gold-leaf offering ceremony at 40 baht per set, which is a specific ceremony and not the temple's general hours. |
|---|---|
| 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 | 1 Mu 3, Tambon Bang Kaeo Fa, Nakhon Chai Si, Nakhon Pathom 73120, on the Nakhon Chai Si river, reached along highway 3233 between kilometre 10 and 11. The temple's telephone number is 034 389 333. |
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 Sangha Region 14 information centre's register carries it as a วัดราษฎร์, an ordinary commoner monastery of the Maha Nikaya. Note that there is a Wat Bang Phra Worawihan elsewhere in Thailand that is a royal temple, and a วัดกลางบางพระ in this same district that is a different temple again, with a different famous image. Sources about either of those are not sources about this one.
Not established. The Sangha register's founding-date and sema-date fields are both empty. The Tourism Authority of Thailand supposes an Ayutthaya-period origin around B.E. 2220 and marks the claim as supposition rather than record. The Fine Arts Department is reported as reading the old ordination hall's brick and tile as mid-Ayutthaya work, which supports a period but is not a date and is not a registration.
This guide does not print a date, and that is deliberate. The annual master-honouring ceremony is reckoned by the lunar calendar, so the Gregorian date moves every year, and no source this guide is prepared to cite publishes the reckoning or a current date — every specific date found came from travel press. Anyone planning around it should ask the temple directly rather than trust a date from a listicle.
Phra Udom Prachanat, born Poen Phurangsi on 12 August B.E. 2466 in this subdistrict, ordained at this temple on 23 May B.E. 2491, abbot here from 25 August B.E. 2518 until his death on 30 June B.E. 2545. He held the titles Phra Khru Thapanakit Sunthon from B.E. 2523 and Phra Udom Prachanat from B.E. 2537, and Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University gave him an honorary doctorate in Buddhist studies in B.E. 2538. His preserved body is kept at the temple and venerated there.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand gives 07.00 to 18.00 for visiting. No official source consulted states a general admission charge, a dress rule or a photography rule. The temple's own site publishes 07.00 to 16.30 and 40 baht per set for its gold-leaf offering ceremony, which is one specific observance rather than an entrance fee. It is a working monastery and a place of active devotional practice, and should be visited on that footing.
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 Nakhon Pathom’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.