The royal monastery on the limestone hill above the meeting of the Ping and the Nan, whose Sukhothai inscription records a chedi and a vihara raised for a dead younger brother and names neither the year nor the man who built them.
วัดวรนาถบรรพต · Wat Woranat Banphot
| Official name | วัดวรนาถบรรพต — Wat Woranat Banphot |
|---|---|
| Where | Pak Nam Pho, Mueang Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Sawan |
| Royal temple class | Third class royal temple, Saman (พระอารามหลวงชั้นตรี ชนิดสามัญ) Nakhon Sawan Provincial Office of Buddhism, which states the grade as พระอารามหลวงชั้นตรี ชนิดสามัญ and the order as มหานิกาย in its own entry for the monastery |
| Monastic order | Maha Nikaya |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument Royal Gazette vol. 52, pp. 3687–3688, 8 March B.E. 2478 — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร กำหนดจำนวนโบราณสถานสำหรับชาติ, section 35, จังหวัดนครสวรรค์. The entry is the first in that provincial list and names เขากบ, อำเภอปากน้ำโพ ตำบลปากน้ำโพ. Two things about that entry are worth a reader's attention. The 1935 instrument registers เขากบ — the hill — and not the monastery on it, so the protected thing in the gazette and the monastery in the register are named differently, and the department's register today carries the record under วัดเขากบ, which is a third name again. And the district it gives, อำเภอปากน้ำโพ, no longer exists; it is today อำเภอเมืองนครสวรรค์. The instrument was downloaded from the Fine Arts Department's own scan server and read with Thai optical character recognition on 28 September 2026. Machine reading of 1930s Thai letterpress is imperfect, so where the scan and the structured register differ on a figure the register has been preferred and the scan is cited for the instrument rather than for the number. |
| Coordinates | 15.712996, 100.137854 Fine Arts Department national ancient monument register, monument 0003908 วัดเขากบ, ตำบลปากน้ำโพ อำเภอเมืองนครสวรรค์ |
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 two leading editors of the Sukhothai corpus do not agree on when the stone was cut. Cœdès placed it at B.E. 1962, after the chronicle entry he reasoned from; Prasert na Nagara placed it between B.E. 1900 and 1904, some sixty years earlier. Neither reading supplies the builder's name, which is simply missing. So the year that appears on every sign and in every summary is one scholar's dating of an inscription, and the name beside it is a second scholar's inference from a different document — and the monastery has no founding date that any record establishes.
Khao Kop stands on the west bank just above the point where the Ping and the Nan become the Chao Phraya, and the Provincial Office of Buddhism gives its summit as about 185.50 metres above mean sea level. That is not a great height, but in this landscape it is the only one, and whoever held the confluence wanted the hill. The monastery occupies both the top and the foot: the ordination hall, the vihara, the mondop and the chedi are above, and the preaching hall and the monks' quarters are below, joined by a stair of 437 steps and, since the twentieth century, by a metalled road.
What makes the place matter to historians is a broken slab of sandstone. In late B.E. 2464, returning from the northern monthon, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab stopped at the hill and found an inscribed stone near the replica Buddha footprint on the summit — the footprint that the Nakhon Chum inscription of Kamphaeng Phet calls พระบาทลักษณะ ณ ที่ปากยมพระบาง. He had it sent down to the Vajirañāṇa Library. Its first face describes the raising of a Rama Chedi and a Rama Vihara at a Rama Awat on a summit it calls เขาสุมนกูฏ, and dedicates the merit to a younger brother named Phraya Phra Ram. The top of the stone, where a builder would ordinarily be named, is gone.
The second face was cut later and is stranger. It records an unnamed person performing various acts of merit and then travelling in search of relics as far as India and Lanka — a journey of the kind the Sukhothai court undertook in its Sinhalese-facing century, told without a date and without a name. The two faces together are the only contemporary voice this place has. Everything else about its beginnings comes from a chronicle written elsewhere, about a different event, in which two brothers at เมืองพระบาง submit to a king from the south.
The monastery that stands there now is largely a later building over that foundation. The Provincial Office of Buddhism records that it was named a model development temple by the Department of Religious Affairs and the Sangha Supreme Council in B.E. 2509, and it is today a third-class royal monastery of the Maha Nikaya order with the deputy ecclesiastical governor of the province as its abbot. The inscription is no longer here: it is held at the National Museum Kanchanaphisek in Pathum Thani, where the anthropology centre's field survey recorded it in September 2023.
The chedi on the summit, in the Sukhothai manner, which the Provincial Office of Buddhism describes as holding relics of the Buddha. It is the feature the inscription's Rama Chedi is usually identified with, though nothing on the present structure carries that identification.
The replica Buddha footprint on the top of the hill, beside which Prince Damrong found the inscribed stone in B.E. 2464. It is the footprint the Nakhon Chum inscription refers to as being at ปากยมพระบาง.
A reclining Buddha which the Provincial Office of Buddhism gives as somewhat over ten wa in length, and a stone image seated under a naga hood in what that office describes as the Chiang Saen manner.
The ordination hall of Luang Pho Thong at the foot of the hill, which is where the working life of the monastery is — the preaching hall and the monks' quarters are on this lower level, not on the summit.
The stair itself: 437 steps from the foot to the top, with a metalled road for anyone who would rather drive. The view from the summit takes in the confluence and the whole of the town built around 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 royal monastery. Shoulders and knees covered, and shoes off before entering the ordination hall, the vihara and the mondop. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On the west bank above the confluence, in the middle of the provincial town. A stair of 437 steps climbs from the foot of the hill to the summit, and a metalled road runs up to the top for anyone who cannot manage it. |
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.
Neither half of that claim is in the inscription it rests on. The stone does not name its builder, because the top of it broke away, and its date is disputed — Cœdès placed it at B.E. 1962 and Prasert na Nagara between B.E. 1900 and 1904. The name comes from Cœdès reasoning across to a chronicle entry about two brothers at Mueang Phra Bang. It is a well-argued inference, and it is not a record.
Four different bodies use four different ones. The monastery's own name is วัดวรนาถบรรพต. The Fine Arts Department register carries it as วัดเขากบ. The 1935 Royal Gazette list registered เขากบ, meaning the hill rather than the monastery. And the Sukhothai inscription found on the summit calls that summit เขาสุมนกูฏ. Older sources also use วัดปากพระบาง, from the old name of the town.
Not on the hill. Prince Damrong had it sent to the Vajirañāṇa Library in B.E. 2464, and the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre records it as held at the National Museum Kanchanaphisek in Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani, where its field survey saw it on 6 September 2023.
They could not be confirmed. The Provincial Office of Buddhism page looks as though it gives them, but the field reads เวลาเปิดปิด เช่น ทุกวัน 8.00-17.00, and เช่น means 'for example' — it is the sample text the site's content-management system supplies, not a statement about this monastery. Rather than copy a time from a travel site, this page leaves it open.
There are 437 steps from the foot of the hill to the summit, and a metalled road runs to the top for anyone who would rather drive. The hill is about 185.50 metres above sea level according to the Provincial Office of Buddhism.
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.