The Thursday stupa of the Nakhon Phanom circuit, at Na Wa in the north-west of the province: a smaller copy of Phra That Phanom, 28.52 metres high and 20.80 metres around the base, standing on a site whose original chedi nobody has dated and whose restorations survive only as an account.
วัดธาตุประสิทธิ์ · Wat That Prasit
| Official name | วัดธาตุประสิทธิ์ — Wat That Prasit |
|---|---|
| Where | Na Wa, Na Wa, Nakhon Phanom |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Named in a Royal Gazette list of ancient monuments; not registered Royal Gazette vol. 140, special part 149 Ngo, 23 June B.E. 2566, p. 42 The instrument is the ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง รายชื่อโบราณสถานในเขตจังหวัดนครพนม, downloaded from the department's mirror and read as text in this run. It is a LIST, not a registration: it is made under section 32 of the State Administration Act B.E. 2534, it recites the statutory definition of an ancient monument in section 4 of the Ancient Monuments Act B.E. 2504 as amended, and it does not invoke the registration and land-boundary power. The department's own register codes the difference — this monument is status 6 where the two registered temples in this province are status 5, and its monument-area field is blank. The announcement covers ten monuments in six districts of Nakhon Phanom; under อำเภอนาหว้า it has a single item, วัดธาตุประสิทธิ์ หมู่ที่ ๔ บ้านนาหว้า ตำบลนาหว้า. It was signed on 12 January B.E. 2566 by Phanombutr Chantharachot, Director-General of the Fine Arts Department, and published five months later. |
| Coordinates | 17.484168, 104.097212 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0003523 (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.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand tells the story with a different date and no chain: it says the chedi was ancient and undated until a major restoration in B.E. 2376 remodelled it on Phra That Phanom at a smaller scale. That year appears nowhere in the department's account, and none of the department's three years appears in the Authority's. Both are printed and neither is averaged.
Wat That Prasit is at Ban Na Wa, in a district that sits well away from the Mekong in the north-west corner of Nakhon Phanom. It is not a place a visitor reaches by accident, and its stupa is on the province's birthday circuit as the Thursday stop. The building is a copy of Phra That Phanom at a reduced scale, and the state's own record is unusually frank about how little of its earlier life is established.
The Fine Arts Department's register begins by saying that no evidence has been found for when the temple was built. What it does record is archaeological rather than documentary: an old chedi in poor condition, old Buddha images inside the tunnel within the stupa, and the collapsed remains of an ordination hall, a vihara and monks' quarters around it. Villagers then built the temple again and repaired the stupa. That sequence — ruin, discovery, rebuilding by the community — is the actual history the department is prepared to state.
Everything more specific than that, the department frames as an account rather than a record, and it does so in its own words: ตามประวัติกล่าวไว้ว่า. On that footing it gives three moments. A first restoration in B.E. 2112, at which the stupa is said to have taken the name Phra That Prasit. A restoration in B.E. 2283 credited to the ruler of Sri Khottrabun, who is said to have raised the summit to about thirty metres. And B.E. 2436, when the top is held to have broken and fallen, and the abbot of the day, Phra Prasit Sueksathikan, is credited with the repair. None of the three is attached to a document.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand tells it differently and shorter: an ancient chedi of unknown date, then one major restoration in B.E. 2376 which remodelled it on Phra That Phanom at a smaller scale. That year is in neither of the department's three, and the department's three are not in the Authority's one. This page prints both accounts under the bodies that publish them, because averaging them would produce a date neither of them holds.
What is not in dispute is the standing building and what it contains. The department gives the stupa as square, 7.2 metres wide, 20.80 metres around and 28.52 metres high, with two doorways, and records a preaching hall beside it painted inside with the life of the Buddha. The Tourism Authority adds that the stupa holds relics of the Buddha and of arahants, soil from the four places of pilgrimage in India, and a large number of old Buddha images. It is a working temple and the community that rebuilt it still uses it. BAANLYY does not represent the temple and nothing here is religious or legal advice.
The stupa: square in plan, restored in imitation of Phra That Phanom at a smaller scale, 7.2 metres wide, 20.80 metres in circumference at the base and 28.52 metres high, with doorways on two sides. The Fine Arts Department register and the Tourism Authority give the same circumference and height.
The preaching hall beside the stupa, which the department records as painted inside with scenes from the life of the Buddha.
What the stupa holds, per the Tourism Authority: relics of the Buddha and of arahants, soil brought from the four places of pilgrimage in India, and a large number of old Buddha images.
The setting: Ban Na Wa, in the district the departmental list of B.E. 2566 names as the temple's own — this is the only monument that list carries in Amphoe Na Wa.
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 village temple. Shoulders and knees covered; shoes off before entering the halls. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | 187 Moo 2, Tambon Na Wa, Amphoe Na Wa, Nakhon Phanom 48180 — the address the Tourism Authority publishes. Na Wa is in the north-west of the province, about 90 kilometres from Nakhon Phanom town. Parking on site, per the Tourism Authority; it lists no toilets. |
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.
Nobody official will date the original. The Fine Arts Department's register opens its entry by stating that no evidence has been found for when the temple was built, and describes instead what was found on the site: a decayed old chedi, old Buddha images inside the stupa's tunnel, and the collapsed remains of an ordination hall, a vihara and monks' quarters. The restoration dates that circulate — B.E. 2112, B.E. 2283 and B.E. 2436 — are given by the department itself under the qualifier that this is what the account says, with no document named behind any of them.
Because two arms of the state tell different stories and neither cites the other. The Fine Arts Department gives a chain of three: a first restoration in B.E. 2112 at which the stupa took its present name, a restoration in B.E. 2283 credited to the ruler of Sri Khottrabun who raised the summit to about thirty metres, and a repair after the top fell in B.E. 2436. The Tourism Authority of Thailand instead gives one major restoration, in B.E. 2376, which remodelled the stupa on Phra That Phanom at a smaller scale. None of those years appears on both lists, so this page prints both accounts under the body that publishes each.
It is protected, but it is not registered, and those are different legal positions. The Director-General of the Fine Arts Department named it in a list of ancient monuments in Nakhon Phanom published in the Royal Gazette at vol. 140 special part 149 Ngo on 23 June B.E. 2566 — a list made under section 32 of the State Administration Act, which reaches the statutory definition of an ancient monument without invoking the registration and land-boundary power in section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act. The department's own register codes it accordingly and its monument-area field is blank.
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.