The registered monastery above the Ping at Kao Liao where King Chulalongkorn stopped in B.E. 2449 to meet Luang Pho Heng, holding a bronze replica Buddha footprint inscribed B.E. 2456 and given by a queen.
วัดเขาดินใต้ · Wat Khao Din Tai
| Official name | วัดเขาดินใต้ — Wat Khao Din Tai |
|---|---|
| Where | Khao Din, Kao Liao, Nakhon Sawan |
| 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 37 ง, 19 May B.E. 2541 — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนและกำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน, item 5: โบราณสถานวัดเขาดินใต้ (วัดพระหน่อธรณินท์ใกล้วารินคงคาราม), หมู่ที่ ๒ บ้านเขาดินใต้ ตำบลเขาดิน อำเภอเก้าเลี้ยว จังหวัดนครสวรรค์, an area of approximately 51 rai 2 ngan. Signed by Director-General Nikhom Musikakhama on 3 December B.E. 2540. The square-wa figure at the end of the area was read as 30 in one optical-character-recognition pass and as a different value in a second at higher resolution, so it is left out rather than printed; the rai and ngan figures were consistent across both passes. Worth noting from the same instrument: it was signed on 3 December B.E. 2540 and published on 19 May B.E. 2541, a gap of five and a half months between the Director-General's signature and the monument becoming a matter of public record. This is a registration with a determined land boundary under section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act B.E. 2504, which is the stronger of the two protections in Thai law. |
| Coordinates | 15.817670, 100.075499 Fine Arts Department national ancient monument register, monument 0003912 วัดเขาดินใต้, ตำบลเขาดิน อำเภอเก้าเลี้ยว — preferred over the Tourism Authority's map pin, which falls in Mueang Nakhon Sawan district about fourteen kilometres away and contradicts both the register and the gazette instrument |
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.
Read the royal dates on this record alongside those on the Wat Khao No record, which is thirty kilometres away. King Chulalongkorn was at Khao No on 18 August B.E. 2449 and here on the 28th, ten days apart on the same journey; and Queen Saovabha Phongsri cut her cypher above the cave at Khao No in B.E. 2455 and gave the bronze footprint here in B.E. 2456. Two of the six records on this page carry her mark within a year of each other.
Wat Khao Din Tai stands on the west bank of the Ping at Kao Liao, seventeen kilometres or so north of Nakhon Sawan, on a low rock outcrop with a second hill behind it and a wide marsh at its back from which, on a clear day, Khao Luang can be seen a long way off. Its full name — วัดพระหน่อธรณินทร์ใกล้วารินคงคาราม — is unusually long for a Thai monastery, and the explanation is that it was paired with Wat Maha Pho Tai directly opposite across the water, the two treated as elder and younger, with the second half of the name meaning something like 'near the waters of the Ganges monastery'.
Its place in the record rests on a single morning. On 28 August B.E. 2449, on the second of the Ton journeys, King Chulalongkorn was travelling upriver to Kamphaeng Phet and stopped here to pay his respects to the abbot, Luang Pho Heng. The two talked for a long time and the king came away impressed by the monk's observance, summoning him afterwards to the capital and to court ceremonies and eventually conferring on him the special-grade ecclesiastical title พระครูพิสิษฐสมถคุณ. The fan of rank that came with it, with the white band marking a special-grade phra khru, is now in the National Museum rather than at the temple.
Seven years later the connection was renewed from the other side of the palace. Queen Saovabha Phongsri gave the monastery a bronze replica Buddha footprint, and the inscription cut along its side is dated B.E. 2456. It sits in an old mondop at the north end of the upper part of the site, on the hilltop, which makes it one of the few objects on this whole page that carries its own date on itself rather than being dated from outside. The queen had cut her cypher above the cave at Khao No, thirty kilometres away and in the same province, the year before.
The rest of the site is older-feeling and much less documented. An old chedi and the ordination hall stand at the southern end, and tradition attaches them to a visit by Somdet Phra Phutthachan To on a walking journey north. Behind the monastery two rock hills are joined by a path, and the story told about the gap between them is of a hidden-people's cave, a ถ้ำลับแล, out of which music is sometimes heard. The local subdistrict authority calls the whole foundation late Ayutthaya, about three hundred years and more, and gives no document for it.
The old mondop at the northern end of the upper site, sheltering a bronze replica Buddha footprint with an inscription along its side dated B.E. 2456, given by Queen Saovabha Phongsri.
The old chedi and the ordination hall at the southern end, which tradition connects with a visit by Somdet Phra Phutthachan To Phrommarangsi on a journey to Kamphaeng Phet.
สระเสด็จ and the other points on the marked route following the royal visit of 28 August B.E. 2449, including the objects the king is recorded as having given to Luang Pho Heng.
The two rock hills behind the monastery, joined by a walkable path, with the gap between them that the ถ้ำลับแล story attaches to.
The view from the back of the site: a large marsh, and Khao Luang visible in the distance across it.
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 monastery. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off in the mondop and the ordination hall. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On the west bank of the Ping in Tambon Khao Din, Kao Liao district — about fourteen kilometres from the Kao Liao district office and seventeen from Nakhon Sawan. Wat Maha Pho Tai stands directly opposite across the river. The mondop with the dated footprint is on the upper, hilltop part of the site. |
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.
Because it names its pair. The monastery was treated as one of two, elder and younger, with Wat Maha Pho Tai directly opposite on the other bank of the Ping, and the second half of the name — ใกล้วารินคงคาราม — refers to that relationship across the water. Locally it is simply Wat Khao Din Tai.
The bronze replica Buddha footprint in the hilltop mondop, which carries an inscription along its side dated B.E. 2456 and was given by Queen Saovabha Phongsri. It is one of very few objects on this province page that carries its own date rather than being dated from an external record.
Kao Liao, in Tambon Khao Din. The Tourism Authority's page says Mueang Nakhon Sawan and puts its map pin there, but the Fine Arts Department register and the 1998 Royal Gazette registration instrument both give Kao Liao, and the coordinate on this page is the department's.
The abbot when King Chulalongkorn stopped here on 28 August B.E. 2449. The king was impressed enough by his observance to summon him to the capital and to palace ceremonies afterwards, and conferred on him the special-grade title พระครูพิสิษฐสมถคุณ. His fan of rank is now in the National Museum.
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 Sawan’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.