The Monday stupa of the Nakhon Phanom circuit, in the Phu Thai town of Renu Nakhon: 35 metres high on a square base 8.37 metres to a side, built in an old lime mortar bound with tree resin and hide glue, and standing where an earlier stupa was struck by lightning and came down.
พระธาตุเรณู · Phra That Renu, Wat Phra That Renu Nakhon
| Official name | พระธาตุเรณู — Phra That Renu, Wat Phra That Renu Nakhon |
|---|---|
| Where | Renu, Renu Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom |
| 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; no gazette registration recorded The Fine Arts Department carries this monument in its national register with a full record — a written history, a written architectural description, coordinates taken by GPS and a note that the land is held under title deed — and with no registration status and no gazette instrument attached to it at all. That is not an oversight in this guide's reading: the register's status field is empty, where the two registered temples in this province carry status 5 and the two gazette-listed ones carry status 6. Being in the department's register is not the same as being registered under section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act, and this page does not treat it as though it were. |
| Coordinates | 17.047409, 104.676526 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0003509 (GPS) |
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.
So the honest reading is that the standing stupa is the second one on the site, that the first stood only briefly, and that the two published years — 2461 and 2463 — are most likely the building of the first and the consecration of the second rather than a contradiction. Nothing read in this run states that in so many words, so it is offered here as the reading the two records suggest and not as a third fact.
Renu Nakhon is a Phu Thai town, and the Tourism Authority's page for the stupa opens with that rather than with the building — the ground it stands on was the seat of Renu Nakhon, whose people have kept their own customs. The Fine Arts Department's register files the monument under a Tai-Lao cultural period, which is the same observation made administratively. The stupa is the centre of the town in the ordinary sense as well as the devotional one, and it is the Monday stop on the province's birthday circuit.
Its history is short and eventful. The department records that the abbot built it to be the stupa of the town, that it was struck by lightning when it was finished and fell, and that monks and lay people rebuilt it with thicker brick, holding the consecration in B.E. 2463 and naming it Phra That Renu then. The Tourism Authority gives B.E. 2461 and names the builder differently. Neither body mentions the other's account. What both agree on is the dimensions of what stands: a square stupa 35 metres high on a base 8.37 metres to a side.
The construction is the part worth slowing down for, because the department describes a technique rather than just a shape. The stupa is laid up in brick with an old mortar called ชะทาย — lime mixed with sand and bound with yang bong resin and hide-glue water. That is a pre-industrial recipe and it is the reason the surface reads the way it does. Above the base the body of the stupa repeats the plan of the base but steps inward as an inverted-lotus moulding, then a waisted band, and finishes in the square-lotus summit that the department notes the Lao call หัวน้ำเต้า, a gourd head, or หมากปลี, a banana flower.
What is inside is recorded and unusually specific. The department says the interior holds the Tripitaka. The Tourism Authority adds gold and silver Buddha images, valuables, and the regalia of the phraya and the lords of the town — which is a statement about what a provincial stupa was for, as much as about what is in this one. Whether the two accounts describe the same deposit, or the same deposit at different dates, is not something either page settles.
In the ordination hall stands Phra Ong Saen, a gold Buddha image in the meditation attitude which the Tourism Authority describes as Lao in style and as the principal image of the district. The temple is a working one and the town is small; the stupa is approached as a place of worship rather than a monument. BAANLYY does not represent the temple and nothing here is religious or legal advice.
The stupa: square, 35 metres high, on a base 8.37 metres to a side, with a false door arch on each of the four faces. Both the Fine Arts Department register and the Tourism Authority give the same two measurements.
The mortar, which the department names: ชะทาย, an old lime-and-sand mix bound with yang bong resin and hide-glue water, laid up with brick in the pre-industrial way.
The profile above the base — the body repeating the plan of the base but stepped in as an inverted-lotus moulding, then a waisted band, then the square-lotus summit that the department records the Lao calling หัวน้ำเต้า or หมากปลี.
Phra Ong Saen in the ordination hall, a gold Buddha image in the meditation attitude which the Tourism Authority describes as Lao in style and as the image the district is identified with.
The town itself. Renu Nakhon is a Phu Thai settlement and both the Tourism Authority's page and the department's register file the monument in that cultural setting rather than a purely Thai one.
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 | A working temple in a small town. Shoulders and knees covered; shoes off before entering the ordination hall. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Wat Phra That Renu, Tambon Renu, Amphoe Renu Nakhon, off Highway 2031 about 50 kilometres from Nakhon Phanom town and a short drive north-west of That Phanom. Parking and toilets on site, per the Tourism Authority. The Authority publishes a telephone number for the site, +66 4257 9132. |
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 two state sources give different years, and the reason appears to be that there have been two stupas. The Fine Arts Department's register records that the abbot built one, that it was struck by lightning and collapsed when it was finished, and that it was rebuilt with thicker brickwork and consecrated in B.E. 2463 under the name Phra That Renu. The Tourism Authority of Thailand gives B.E. 2461 for the construction. Both years are printed on this page and neither is presented as correcting the other.
No, and the distinction is worth keeping. The Fine Arts Department carries the stupa in its national monument register with a full record — history, architectural description, GPS coordinates and a note that the land is held under title deed — but with no registration status and no Royal Gazette instrument attached. Two temples in this guide's Nakhon Phanom set are registered with gazetted land boundaries and two others are named in departmental lists; this one is in neither category, and being in the register is not the same thing as being registered.
Brick, laid up in a lime mortar the Fine Arts Department names on its register entry: ชะทาย, made from lime mixed with sand and bound with yang bong tree resin and hide-glue water. It is a pre-industrial recipe rather than modern cement, and it is one of the few places in this guide where a state record describes the material of a stupa rather than only its shape. The standing structure is 35 metres high on a square base 8.37 metres to a side.
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 Phanom’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.