The Third Reign royal monastery below Nonthaburi town, raised by one king for his mother and finished by her grandson, and the only temple in Thailand enclosed by what its own province calls a fort wall.
วัดเฉลิมพระเกียรติวรวิหาร · Wat Chaloem Phra Kiat Worawihan
| Official name | วัดเฉลิมพระเกียรติวรวิหาร — Wat Chaloem Phra Kiat Worawihan |
|---|---|
| Where | Bang Si Mueang, Mueang Nonthaburi, Nonthaburi |
| Royal temple class | Second class royal temple, Worawihan (พระอารามหลวงชั้นโท วรวิหาร) The Nonthaburi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism states it in those words — วัดเฉลิมพระเกียรติ เป็นพระอารามหลวงชั้นโท ชนิดวรวิหาร — and the Government Public Relations Department, the provincial government, the Department of Tourism and DASTA each print the same grade independently. |
| Monastic order | Maha Nikaya (มหานิกาย) |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนโบราณสถานและกำหนดที่ดินโบราณสถาน ราชกิจจานุเบกษา เล่ม ๑๑๕ ตอนพิเศษ ๓ ง หน้า ๑ ๑๓ มกราคม ๒๕๔๑ The citation comes from the Fine Arts Department's own index of its gazette announcements, and the department's GIS codes this monument REG_STATUS 5 — registered with the monument land boundary delimited, which is the strongest of the four states the register uses. The scan itself was not opened: the Royal Gazette website returns HTTP 403 to every tool, and unlike the other five monuments here the department does not serve this announcement from its own file store. So the monument area often quoted for it is not reproduced on this page. |
| Coordinates | 13.848060, 100.484249 Fine Arts Department, national monument register no. 0000210, point geometry from the department's own GIS (WGS84) |
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 year of foundation is not settled. The Department of Tourism and DASTA both print B.E. 2390 (1847); the figure B.E. 2392 circulates widely and appears in no state source consulted; and neither the National Office of Buddhism nor the Government Public Relations Department gives a year at all. Nor is it clear whether 2390 would date the royal command, the ground-breaking or the granting of the name.
The ground Wat Chaloem Phra Kiat stands on was a fort before it was a monastery. The Nonthaburi provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism describes the site as the old fortification on the west bank of the Chao Phraya below Talat Khwan, and that is the first thing to know about the place, because the enclosure that visitors notice first — a high wall with bastion-like corners running right around the ordination hall — is not a decorative conceit. It is what the Government Public Relations Department calls a kamphaeng kaeo built in the form of a fort and stockade, and the department says flatly that there is no other like it in the country.
The monastery was a family memorial. Rama III ordered it raised on the former residence of Phraya Nonthaburi Si Maha Utthayan (Bunchan) and Khunying Pheng — his own maternal grandfather and grandmother — in honour of his royal mother, Somdet Phra Si Sulalai. Phraya Phrakhlang, Dit Bunnag, was put in charge of the work, and the king granted the monastery its name, Chaloem Phra Kiat, which is simply Thai for the honouring of a reputation. He did not live to see it done. The provincial government records that he fell ill and died with the work unfinished, and that Rama IV took it over on his accession, appointing Phraya Thiphakorawong, Kham Bunnag, to carry it through. The National Office of Buddhism dates the completion of the ordination hall, the royal vihara, the preaching hall and the great chedi to about B.E. 2394.
What was built is the Third Reign taste at its most deliberate: the phra ratcha niyom manner, Thai structure with Chinese surface. The gables carry no naga finials but glazed Chinese tile set in stucco flowers; the door and window surrounds are stucco leaf and peony; the interior walls are painted not with narrative but with an interlaced medallion pattern in the same floral vocabulary, and the ceiling is gilt stencil. The copper for the principal image was mined at Chanthuek in Nakhon Ratchasima on the king's order, and Rama IV gave the finished image the name Phra Phuttha Maha Lokaphinantha Patima. The great chedi behind, the National Office of Buddhism says, is in the Lankan manner — a round bell on a circular base above a two-tiered square platform.
The river in front has its own standing. On 6 April B.E. 2562 the province performed the rite of drawing water mid-stream here for the coronation of the present reign, and the Public Relations Department describes this reach as the only sacred water source Nonthaburi has. A further rite of consecrated water was held in the ordination hall in July B.E. 2567. Whether that designation rests on anything older than administrative practice, no source consulted says.
The fort-form enclosing wall around the ordination hall — the Government Public Relations Department calls it a kamphaeng kaeo made as a fort-and-stockade wall and says it is the only one of its kind in the country. The site was itself a fort, which is the likely reason for the form.
Phra Phuttha Maha Lokaphinantha Patima, the principal image: a Maravijaya Buddha cast in copper, named by Rama IV, and eight sok one khuep four niu high. Its lap width is given as five sok by the National Office of Buddhism and six sok by the provincial government — two state sources, one image, two measurements.
The ordination hall in the Third Reign royal-preference manner: gables of glazed coloured Chinese tile set in stucco peony, stucco leaf-and-flower door and window surrounds, and an interior painted with an interlaced medallion pattern rather than a narrative cycle. No state source describes any Jataka or Buddha-life mural here.
The great chedi behind the hall, described by the National Office of Buddhism as being in the Lankan manner: a round bell in brick and stucco on a circular base above a two-tiered square platform. No dimensions for it are published.
The royal vihara, which holds a stone Buddha in the Maravijaya posture, thirty inches across the lap and thirty-three inches high, enshrined in B.E. 2401 under Rama IV, with a bodhi tree planted in the same reign.
The monument to Rama III at the landing on the riverbank, and the Chinese stone figures the Department of Tourism lists among the site's features.
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 | Daily 06:00–18:00, per the Department of Tourism's Thailand Tourism Directory record for the monastery. |
|---|---|
| Admission | Thai nationals: free. Foreign visitors: 0 baht. |
| Dress | Not established from an official source. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On the west bank of the Chao Phraya below Nonthaburi town, with its own landing on the river. The Department of Tourism records arrival on foot, by bicycle and by motorcycle; no state source describes a boat service, parking or step-free access. |
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 was one. The National Office of Buddhism records the site as an old fort on the west bank below Talat Khwan, and the Government Public Relations Department describes the wall around the ordination hall as a kamphaeng kaeo built in the form of a fort and stockade, which it says is the only such wall in the country. That last claim is repeated by two state bodies and substantiated by neither.
Rama III ordered it, on the former residence of his maternal grandparents and in honour of his mother, and Phraya Phrakhlang was put in charge. It was not finished in his reign — the provincial government records that he died first, and that Rama IV took the work over on his accession.
Copper, throughout, in the Maravijaya posture, named Phra Phuttha Maha Lokaphinantha Patima by Rama IV. The copper was mined at Chanthuek in Nakhon Ratchasima on Rama III's order. Note that the two state sources describing it give different lap widths.
No. The Department of Tourism's record states no charge for Thai or foreign visitors.
None that any state source describes. The Department of Tourism records a decorative programme — an interlaced medallion pattern with peony sprays, a gilt stencilled ceiling, painted door and window frames. Whether a narrative cycle exists anywhere in the complex is not established, so this guide does not claim one.
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 Nonthaburi’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.