A working city temple whose registered monument is a single building: a group of three linked timber houses raised in 1888, carved throughout, and the best-surviving example of the southern Thai monastic residence.
วัดวังตะวันตก · Wat Wang Tawan Tok
| Official name | วัดวังตะวันตก — Wat Wang Tawan Tok |
|---|---|
| Where | Khlang, Mueang Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nakhon Si Thammarat |
| 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. 110, part 220, special issue, p. 18, 24 December B.E. 2536 Read firsthand in this run, and it disagrees with the department's own register about the tambon. The announcement — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนและกำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน, made on 29 November B.E. 2536 and signed by Flight Lieutenant Awut Ngoenchuklin for the Director-General — registers the monument as โบราณสถานวัดวังตะวันตก in ตำบลท่าวัง, names the significant element as กุฏิทรงไทย, the Thai-form monastic residence, and gives the monument land as about 3 ngan 25¾ square wa. The Fine Arts Department's 12th Regional Office page for the same monument, and the department's own register and GIS layer, all place it in ตำบลคลัง. The land figure matches exactly — the regional office's 3 ngan 25.75 square wa is the gazette's ๓ งาน ๒๕ ๓/๔ ตารางวา — so the disagreement is about the administrative subdistrict only. This file records the subdistrict as Khlang, because that is what the live register says, and prints the gazette's Tha Wang here so the discrepancy is visible. |
| Coordinates | 8.438123, 99.961781 Fine Arts Department FADGIS monument layer, WGS84, monument id 0005070 |
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.
Note what the registered monument actually is. The gazette names the significant element as the กุฏิทรงไทย — the Thai-form residence — not the temple. The registered area of about 3 ngan 25¾ square wa is roughly 1,300 square metres, which is a building and its plot, not a compound. The rest of Wat Wang Tawan Tok is a working temple around a protected house.
Most of the monuments in this guide are chedis and ordination halls. The monument at Wat Wang Tawan Tok is a house. The Fine Arts Department registered it in 1993 and the announcement names the significant element in one phrase — กุฏิทรงไทย, the Thai-form kuti — and fixes about 3 ngan 25¾ square wa of land around it, roughly 1,300 square metres. Everything else on the site is an ordinary active temple.
The building is a group of three timber houses linked into one composition, raised on posts, and carved: the department's account describes decorative woodwork of figures, animals, plants and geometric patterns running through the gable ends, the eaves boards and the panels. It is a southern Thai carpentry tradition rather than a central Thai one, and the reason people come to see it is that so little of that tradition survives at this quality anywhere.
It is dated, and dated by an inscription rather than by inference. The Fine Arts Department records that the inscription on the building credits a man called Achan Yong with beginning the work in B.E. 2431 — 1888 — which places it in the reign of King Chulalongkorn, a generation after the temple itself. The department records restorations in 1991 and again in 2009.
The temple's own origin is a Nakhon Si Thammarat story rather than a religious one. The ground was forest used to dispose of the dead. Chao Chom Prang, a consort at the Bangkok court and a daughter of the Nakhon Si Thammarat house, had it made into a garden for her son. When that son — Chao Phraya Nakhon (Noi), the governor who ran the city from 1814 to 1838 and whose reach extended down the peninsula into the Malay states — needed a cremation ground for his mother, he used the garden, and the temple grew from the cremation. The name means simply the temple of the western palace.
One thing on this page is a live disagreement inside the Fine Arts Department. The department's own announcement of 1993 puts the monument in Tambon Tha Wang. The department's regional office page and the department's own register both put it in Tambon Khlang. The land figure is identical in both, so this is not two monuments; it is an instrument and a register that do not agree about an address, and it has stood for thirty-three years.
The kuti: three linked timber houses on posts, forming a single group, with carved decoration of human figures, animals, plants and geometric patterns. This is the registered monument, and the Fine Arts Department records restorations in 1991 and 2009.
The inscription crediting Achan Yong with beginning the work in B.E. 2431 (1888) — the reason this building has a date at all.
The monument plot itself: about 3 ngan 25¾ square wa, fixed by the Royal Gazette announcement of 24 December B.E. 2536.
The working temple around it, on Thanon Ratchadamnoen — ubosot, wihan and modern monastic buildings that are not part of the registered monument.
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 | An active temple and a monastic residence: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before entering any building. |
| Photography | No restriction stated by any official source. The kuti is where monks live; ask before photographing the interior or anyone in it. |
| Getting there | On Thanon Ratchadamnoen in the northern half of the old city, walkable from the centre and on the same street as Wat Phra Mahathat about 3 km to the south. |
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 kuti — a group of three linked timber houses forming the monastic residence — and about 3 ngan 25¾ square wa of ground around it. The Royal Gazette announcement of 24 December B.E. 2536 names the significant element as กุฏิทรงไทย in so many words. The rest of the temple is not part of the registration.
The Fine Arts Department records an inscription on the building crediting Achan Yong with beginning the work in B.E. 2431 — 1888. That is a dated record rather than an estimate, which is rare for a timber building of this kind.
It means the temple of the western palace. The ground belonged to the Nakhon Si Thammarat governing house: it was made into a garden for the future Chao Phraya Nakhon (Noi) by his mother Chao Chom Prang, and became a temple when he used it as her cremation ground during his governorship of 1814–1838.
The live Fine Arts Department register says Tambon Khlang, and this guide follows it. The department's own 1993 gazette announcement says Tambon Tha Wang. Both give the same land area, so it is one monument with two official addresses, and the disagreement has not been resolved.
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 Si Thammarat’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.