A village monastery on the Tak Bai river whose ordination hall carries three different calendars over its doors, and is the last building its designer is known to have drawn.
วัดธารากร · Wat Tharakon
By the BAANLYY Editorial Team · Last checked 5 October 2026
| Official name | วัดธารากร — Wat Tharakon |
|---|---|
| Where | Che He, Tak Bai, Narathiwat |
| 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. 116, special part 17 ง, p. 13, 17 March B.E. 2542, item 1 of three, signed 14 December B.E. 2541 One instrument, read on the page. It registers three monuments and determines their boundaries: Wat Tharakon in Narathiwat, Khao Khuha at Sathing Phra and Wat Sung Ko Yai at Krasae Sin, both in Songkhla. Wat Tharakon is given about 2 rai 57 tarang wa. The entry states rai and tarang wa with no ngan figure between them, which is how the announcement reads and is reproduced here rather than tidied. |
| Coordinates | 6.262804, 102.041629 Fine Arts Department FADGIS monument point layer, record 0005311, matching object id 594832 returned by the department identify service, and confirmed to fall inside the department own polygon for Tambon Che He, Amphoe Tak Bai, Narathiwat |
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 department gives two different years for the same front-door inscription, B.E. 2476 in its history field and B.E. 2477 in its art and architecture field. Both are its own text. C.S. 1295 and R.S. 152 both correspond to B.E. 2476, which makes 2476 the better supported of the two, and the page says so rather than picking silently.
This one is eight hundred meters upriver from the famous monastery and almost nobody stops at it. It was Wat Bang Noi, named after the village, before it was Wat Tharakon, and the register notes the change without saying when it happened or why.
The ordination hall is the reason it is on the national register. It is brick and stucco, a replacement for an earlier hall on the same ground, and it faces north-west rather than one of the cardinal directions. The plan is a rectangle with porches pushed out at the front and the sides, inside a low enclosing wall. The roof is timber under fired clay tiles with the usual finial, serrated bargeboards and swan-tail ends, and the door and window surrounds are the crown shape used all along this coast.
The dates are carved on the building, and there are three of them in two calendars. Over the front door the register reads a Buddhist Era year — B.E. 2476 in the department history text and B.E. 2477 in its description text, which is a discrepancy inside one register entry. Over a side door is a line that gives no number at all and says only that the hall was built in a year of the rooster. Over the north door are C.S. 1295 and R.S. 152, the Chula Sakarat and Rattanakosin Sok counts, both of which land on B.E. 2476. A building that dates itself three times in two systems is unusual enough to be worth looking for, and the arithmetic favors 2476.
On the front porch is a piece of sculpture the register describes as resembling a hatsadiling — the elephant-bird of the southern funeral tradition. The wooden ceiling inside the hall is painted with star discs ringed by birds, bats, butterflies and flowers, and the ceilings of the side porches carry the same star pattern with birds around it.
The last thing the register says about this hall is the thing that ties it to its neighbors. It calls it the final ordination hall designed by Phra Winaithon — the monk named Chui, the painter of the murals at Wat Chonthara Singhe — and notes that some of the painted work here resembles what he left in the former abbot house there. The same man carved the gilded Buddha in the abbot house at Wat Khok Mafueang, which is on this page too. Three of the six monuments in this run run back to one hand.
The brick-and-stucco ordination hall, facing north-west inside a low enclosing wall, with porches pushed out at the front and both sides under a timber roof of fired clay tiles.
Three dating inscriptions over three doors: a Buddhist Era year at the front, a year of the rooster at the side, and C.S. 1295 with R.S. 152 over the north door.
The sculpture on the front porch that the register likens to a hatsadiling, the elephant-headed bird of southern funeral practice.
The painted wooden ceiling inside the hall — star discs ringed with birds, bats, butterflies and falling flowers — and the same star pattern repeated on the side-porch ceilings.
Crown-shaped door and window surrounds with wooden leaves, the regional form that recurs at every monastery on this page.
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. Cover shoulders and knees and take your shoes off before going into the ordination hall. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | In Tambon Che He, Amphoe Tak Bai, about 800 meters west of Wat Chonthara Singhe along the river. |
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.
Wat Bang Noi, after the village. The Fine Arts Department register notes the earlier name and does not say when or why it changed.
Because the congregation cut them in three different places and two different calendars. A Buddhist Era year sits over the front door, a year of the rooster over a side door, and C.S. 1295 with R.S. 152 over the north door. The last two both convert to B.E. 2476.
The register names Phra Winaithon, the monk Chui who painted the murals at Wat Chonthara Singhe, and calls this the last ordination hall he designed.
Yes. The register records the monument as restored and in good condition, which is not what it says about three of the other five monuments on this page.
No official source consulted publishes any.
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 Narathiwat’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.
Last checked 5 October 2026
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.