A brick-and-stucco stupa in the shape of Phra That Phanom, on the Mekong bank at Tha Uthen facing Laos, begun on a Tuesday in the year of the pig and finished five years later. It is the Friday stupa of the province's birthday circuit, and one of only two temples in Nakhon Phanom registered with a gazetted land boundary.
วัดพระธาตุท่าอุเทน · Wat Phra That Tha Uthen
| Official name | วัดพระธาตุท่าอุเทน — Wat Phra That Tha Uthen |
|---|---|
| Where | Tha Uthen, Tha Uthen, Nakhon Phanom |
| 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. 115, special part 4 Ngo, 14 January B.E. 2541 The instrument is the ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนและกำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน published at vol. 115 special part 4 Ngo — registration and land boundary in one act, which is why this monument sits at the department's register status 5. It covers four provinces at once, Roi Et, Kalasin, Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan, and this temple is item 3, written โบราณสถานวัดพระธาตุท่าอุเทน หมู่ที่ ๕ ตำบลท่าอุเทน อำเภอท่าอุเทน จังหวัดนครพนม. The order itself was signed on 10 October B.E. 2540 by the deputy director-general acting for the director-general, and published three months later. The register gives the monument area as 2 rai 2 ngan 89.48 square wa; the optical reading of the scan gave a different square-wa figure at two resolutions, and by this guide's standing rule the structured register wins on digits and the scan is cited for the instrument rather than the number. The register also records that the land rests on the temple's own certificate of use, หนังสือรับรองการทำประโยชน์. |
| Coordinates | 17.581695, 104.591414 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0003490 (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.
Two cautions on those dates. First, B.E. 2454 ran from April 1911 to March 1912 under the Thai year then in use, so a January date inside it falls in 1912 by the Gregorian calendar, not 1911. Second, the two state bodies spell the founder's name differently — the department writes พระอาจารย์ศรีทัตถ์ and the Tourism Authority writes หลวงปู่สีทัตถ์ ญาณสัมปันโน — and neither is corrected here.
Wat Phra That Tha Uthen stands on Si Mueang Road in the town of Tha Uthen, close to the district office and close to the river. Across the water is Laos: the Fine Arts Department's own history of the monument locates it by what faces it, opposite Mueang Pak Hin Pun, now Mueang Hin Pun. That is worth noticing, because it places the stupa in a religious landscape that does not stop at the modern border, and it is the same landscape Phra That Phanom sits in fifty kilometres downstream.
Its beginning is unusually well recorded for a temple of any age in this province, and the reason is that it is not old. The department's register dates the start to a Tuesday, the twelfth waxing day of the third month in the year of the pig, which it gives as 30 January B.E. 2454 — a January inside a Thai year that began the previous April, so 1912 rather than 1911 in Gregorian terms. The monk who led the work is named by the department as Phra Ajahn Sithat, and by the Tourism Authority, with a different spelling, as Luang Pu Sithat Yanasampanno. He is recorded as having gathered monks, novices and lay people of the district to build it. The work was finished in B.E. 2459, and both state bodies give that pair of years.
The Tourism Authority describes the construction from the ground up. A pit was dug at the site and filled with a stone the account names three ways — หินแก้วนางเรียง, หินแก้วนางฝาน, หินเขี้ยวหนุมาน — to carry the stupa, and nothing else was used as footing. The structure above it was raised in brick and stucco on a square plan in three stages: first a chamber holding relics that the Authority records the founder as having brought from Yangon, together with Buddha images and valuables; then a second stage built over that chamber; and then the great stupa itself. The department gives the base as 6 wa 3 sok to a side and the height as 33 wa, which the Authority converts to 66 metres.
It has been worked on twice since. The Fine Arts Department carried out its first restoration in B.E. 2541 — the same year the temple was registered in the Royal Gazette — reinforcing the interior with concrete beams, and a second campaign followed in B.E. 2557 to 2558. The department describes the standing monument as a stupa of the same form as Phra That Phanom, square in plan, with a niche-arch on each of the four faces carrying fine stucco work, and two enclosing walls around it.
For a visitor the temple is one stop on the circuit the province is organised around, and it is not the ancient half of it. The homage runs from the thirteenth waxing day to the first waning day of the fourth lunar month, and the Tourism Authority records that the festival carries the cultural performance of the Thai Yo, whom it describes as the largest such group in Thailand. BAANLYY does not represent the temple and nothing here is religious or legal advice.
The stupa: brick and stucco on a square plan, in the form of Phra That Phanom, with a niche-arch — ซุ้มจรนำ — on each of the four faces carrying stucco work the Fine Arts Department register singles out as fine, and two enclosing walls around the base.
The measurements as the state gives them: base 6 wa 3 sok to a side and height 33 wa in the department's register, which the Tourism Authority converts to 66 metres.
The three stages of the structure as the Tourism Authority describes them: a chamber at the bottom holding relics brought from Yangon along with Buddha images and valuables, a second stage built over that chamber, and the great stupa above.
The stone footing, which is the odd detail of this building: a pit filled with a stone the account calls หินแก้วนางเรียง, หินแก้วนางฝาน or หินเขี้ยวหนุมาน, laid as the sole support under the stupa.
The Mekong immediately east, with Laos on the far bank — the department's own history fixes the monument's position by what stands opposite it on the other side of the river.
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. Shoulders and knees covered; shoes off before entering any of the halls. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Ban Tha Uthen, Si Mueang Road, Tambon Tha Uthen, Amphoe Tha Uthen, close to the district office, about 26 kilometres north of Nakhon Phanom town on the river road. Parking and toilets on site, per the Tourism Authority. |
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.
It is a twentieth-century building and the state record says so clearly, which makes it one of the better-dated temples in this guide. The Fine Arts Department's register carries its age as B.E. 2454 to 2459 and its written history gives the start as a Tuesday, the twelfth waxing day of the third month in the year of the pig, equated to 30 January B.E. 2454. Because the Thai year then began in April, that January date falls in 1912 by the Gregorian calendar. The Tourism Authority of Thailand gives the same two years for the beginning and the completion of the work.
In its outward form, yes, and both state sources say so rather than leaving it to be inferred. The Fine Arts Department's register describes it as a stupa of the same shape as Phra That Phanom, square in plan, brick and stucco, with a niche-arch on each face and two enclosing walls; the Tourism Authority describes it as one of several stupas whose exterior was modelled on Phra That Phanom. Its own construction is quite different, though: the Authority records a pit filled with a named stone as the sole footing, and a three-stage structure built over a relic chamber.
Yes, and it is one of only two temples in this guide's Nakhon Phanom set that are. The announcement at Royal Gazette vol. 115 special part 4 Ngo of 14 January B.E. 2541 both registered it and fixed its land boundary in a single act, which is why the Fine Arts Department carries it at register status 5. The announcement covers four provinces together and this temple is its third item. The department gives the monument area as 2 rai 2 ngan 89.48 square wa, on land held under the temple's own certificate of use.
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.