The temple outside the north wall where King Tilokarat had a great bronze Buddha cast to mark taking Nan without a battle — and where the state's own sources disagree about the founding by 185 years.
วัดสวนตาล · Wat Suan Tan
| Official name | วัดสวนตาล — Wat Suan Tan |
|---|---|
| Where | Nai Wiang, Mueang Nan, Nan |
| 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. 97, part 159, p. 3525, 14 October B.E. 2523 This page was opened and read directly in this run, in a rendering browser, and it settles a disagreement between two earlier readings. Gazette page ๓๕๒๕ of เล่ม ๙๗ ตอนที่ ๑๕๙, ๑๔ ตุลาคม ๒๕๒๓, is a ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง กำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน for Wat Suan Tan and no other temple: it recites that the department had registered โบราณสถานวัดสวนตาล by the announcement in เล่ม ๖๑ ตอนที่ ๖๕ of ๒๔ ตุลาคม ๒๔๘๗ without fixing a land boundary, and then, under section 7 of the Act B.E. 2504, fixes the monument land of วัดสวนตาล ตำบลในเวียง อำเภอเมืองน่าน จังหวัดน่าน at ประมาณ ๓ ไร่. It was announced on ๒๗ สิงหาคม ๒๕๒๓ and signed by เดโช สวนานนท์, Director-General of the Fine Arts Department. The next page, ๓๕๒๖, is a separate order for Wat Phra That Chom Nang at Tha Wang Pha. The original 1944 registration itself was not opened, so its land figure, its list of significant things and its signer are not carried here, and the register id 0003801 comes from a transcription of the department's table rather than from the register record. |
Nai Wiang, Mueang Nan, Nan
The exact location has not been confirmed yet.
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 state founding years are 185 years apart and neither is documented. The Fine Arts Department's own version is internally consistent — it gives Phaya Phu Kheng's reign as B.E. 1950–1960, which contains 1955 and cannot contain 1770 — but consistency is not evidence, and this page asserts neither. Two errors in the state sources should also not be carried forward. The Fine Arts Department's article writes the casting date as จุลศักราช ๑๒๒ alongside B.E. 1993; Chulasakarat 122 is B.E. 1303, and Chulasakarat 812 is B.E. 1993, so the numeral is a corruption. And both the department and the provincial cultural office place B.E. 2457 in the reign of Rama V, who died in B.E. 2453; B.E. 2457 falls in the reign of Rama VI. The Tourism Authority of Thailand's page adds a third inconsistency of its own, giving the foundation as B.E. 1770 in one paragraph and calling the temple six hundred years old in another.
Wat Suan Tan stands on Thanon Mahayot, just outside the line of the old city wall on the north side of Nan. The name means the palm grove, and the Fine Arts Department says the site was one: a stand of large sugar palms, which is also where King Tilokarat of Lanna is said to have made his camp. It is an ordinary temple rather than a royal monastery, and the interest here is one image and one chedi.
The image is Phra Chao Thong Thip, and it is large. Three state sources — the Fine Arts Department, the Nan Provincial Cultural Office and the Tourism Authority of Thailand — give identical figures: bronze, seated in the Maravijaya attitude, with a lap width of ten feet, about 3.05 metres, and a height of fourteen feet four inches, about 4.37 metres. The department reads the style as Lanna merged with Sukhothai and lists the traits it is reading: the oval face and flame rasmi, the small hair curls, the large thick-ridged nose and knobbed chin, the full body with broad shoulders and narrow waist, the large hands with thick fingers, the ridged sanghati.
The story attached to it is a good one and it belongs to the Nan Chronicle rather than to any document. Tilokarat, having campaigned in the north, besieged Nan for seven days; Phaya Inta Kaen Thao withdrew rather than fight; the city fell without blood, and the king ordered a great image cast to mark a victory in which nobody died. The department gives the year as B.E. 1993 and the provincial cultural office as B.E. 1992. No inscription supports either. That is worth stating precisely, because two temples away at Wat Phaya Phu and Wat Phra That Chang Kham there are inscribed bronzes of the 1420s that do carry dates, and the contrast shows what a documented image looks like next to a famous one.
The chedi has a documented change of shape, which is rarer than it sounds. Both the provincial cultural office and the tourism authority record a photograph in the National Archives, taken before Phra Chao Suriyaphong Pharitdet's restoration, showing a chedi of square plan in the lotus-bud form — the Sukhothai type, from the middle of the twentieth Buddhist century, with arched gateways on all four sides at the lower level. The department dates the rebuilding to B.E. 2457, and what stands now is a prang-topped chedi: stacked square courses, a redented body, and a lotus-bud finial with rings and a spire. A photograph of what was there before is better evidence than most temples in this province can offer.
Behind the principal image the wall carries a mural of the twenty-eight Buddhas. In front of the wihan is a well that appears on the national list of sacred water sources. The temple's own great occasion is at Songkran, when the image is bathed and honoured through the day and into the night.
Two cautions for anyone reading further. The Fine Arts Department's article on this temple contains a corrupted era figure and misplaces B.E. 2457 in the wrong reign, and the tourism authority's page gives a founding year and an age that do not agree with each other. Both are set out in this record rather than repeated.
Phra Chao Thong Thip: bronze, seated in the Maravijaya attitude, lap width ten feet — about 3.05 m — and height fourteen feet four inches, about 4.37 m. The Fine Arts Department, the Nan Provincial Cultural Office and the Tourism Authority of Thailand all print the same measurements.
The chedi, prang-topped: stacked square na kradan courses rising to a redented ruean that and a lotus-bud finial with rings and a spire. This is the B.E. 2457 rebuilding by Phra Chao Suriyaphong Pharitdet, not the original.
What the chedi used to be, which you can only see in a photograph: a square-plan lotus-bud chedi of the Sukhothai type, with arched gateways on all four sides at the lower level, recorded in an image held in the National Archives and taken before that restoration.
The mural behind the principal image: the twenty-eight Buddhas, named by the Fine Arts Department as Phra Anantaphutthachao.
The well in front of the wihan, which is carried on the national list of one hundred and eight sacred water sources.
The Songkran rite: the annual bathing and homage to Phra Chao Thong Thip, held through the day and into the night, recorded by both the Fine Arts Department and the provincial cultural office.
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 the wihan. No official dress notice was found. |
| Photography | No official restriction was found. Treat the ordination hall and any monk at prayer as off limits unless invited. |
| Getting there | 244 Thanon Mahayot, Tambon Nai Wiang, Amphoe Mueang Nan, just outside the north side of the old city wall. The Tourism Authority of Thailand lists parking on site and gives the telephone as +66 5477 2539. |
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 image is bronze, seated in the Maravijaya attitude, with a lap width of ten feet — about 3.05 metres — and a height of fourteen feet four inches, about 4.37 metres, figures given identically by the Fine Arts Department, the Nan Provincial Cultural Office and the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The casting story is not documented. The department names its source explicitly as the Nan Chronicle, and no inscription at this temple was found in this run supporting the account or its date, which is given as B.E. 1993 by the department and B.E. 1992 by the provincial cultural office.
Nobody knows, and the state's own publications disagree by 185 years. The Nan Provincial Cultural Office gives B.E. 1770 and prefaces it with the word presumed; the Fine Arts Department, the provincial tourism office and Nan Municipality give B.E. 1955. The department's figure is at least internally consistent, since it puts Phaya Phu Kheng's reign at B.E. 1950–1960, but consistency is not evidence. A search index also shows the National Office of Buddhism's register carrying a third year, B.E. 1698. No document establishing any of them was located.
No, and unusually for this province there is photographic proof. Both the Nan Provincial Cultural Office and the Tourism Authority of Thailand record a photograph held in the National Archives, taken before the restoration under Phra Chao Suriyaphong Pharitdet, showing a chedi of square plan in the Sukhothai lotus-bud form with arched gateways on all four sides at the lower level. The Fine Arts Department dates the rebuilding to B.E. 2457, and what stands today is the prang-topped chedi that campaign produced.
The boundary order was opened and read directly in this run. Gazette page 3525 of volume 97, part 159, dated 14 October B.E. 2523, recites that the Fine Arts Department had registered Wat Suan Tan as an ancient monument by the announcement of 24 October B.E. 2487 without fixing a land boundary, and then fixes the monument land of Wat Suan Tan, Tambon Nai Wiang, Amphoe Mueang Nan at about 3 rai. It was announced on 27 August B.E. 2523 and signed by Decho Sawananon, Director-General. The 1944 registration itself was not opened.
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 Nan’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.