The great stupa of the Dvaravati city, standing two kilometres outside its walls: a 64-metre-square laterite and brick base with twelve directional chedis around it, registered with its land in 1963 and inscribed by UNESCO in 2023.
เขาคลังนอก · Khao Khlang Nok
| Official name | เขาคลังนอก — Khao Khlang Nok |
|---|---|
| Where | Si Thep (ศรีเทพ), Si Thep (ศรีเทพ), Phetchabun |
| 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. 80, part 29, 26 March B.E. 2506 — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนโบราณสถาน, item 2, registering คลังนอกเมืองศรีเทพ บ้านหนองปรือ อำเภอวิเชียรบุรี จังหวัดเพชรบูรณ์ together with its land at about 15 ไร่ 1 งาน. The department's register codes this monument as registered with a determined land boundary, its strongest status. Two things about the record are worth knowing. The 1963 instrument names the monument คลังนอกเมืองศรีเทพ and places it at บ้านหนองปรือ in อำเภอวิเชียรบุรี, neither of which is how the register addresses it today. And the department's own heritage flag on this record reads ไม่เป็นแหล่งมรดกโลก — not a World Heritage site — although UNESCO names the Khao Klang Nok ancient monument as one of the three components of property 1662. The flag appears to be set only on the city record. The instrument was read from the department's own scan. |
| World Heritage | The Ancient Town of Si Thep and its Associated Dvaravati Monuments (1662) |
| Coordinates | 15.486833, 101.144470 Fine Arts Department national ancient monument register, monument 0004680 เขาคลังนอก, ตำบลศรีเทพ อำเภอศรีเทพ จังหวัดเพชรบูรณ์ |
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.
UNESCO describes it as the largest surviving Dvaravati monument. That is a comparative claim by the inscribing body, not a measurement taken here, and it is stated as theirs.
Khao Klang Nok is not on any hill. The name means the outer storehouse, which is what local people took the mound for before it was excavated, and it sits on flat ground about two kilometres north of the inner town of Si Thep, outside both circuits of wall. What the Fine Arts Department's restoration uncovered is a stupa of a scale that nothing else surviving from Dvaravati Thailand matches: a principal chedi on a square redented plan 64 metres by 64, built of laterite and brick, its lowest course a plinth carrying two stacked bases, each base ringed with miniature buildings that produce five projections a side, with stairs at the mid-point of each face.
Above the second base a circumambulation terrace runs right around the core, and the department's reading of what stood on that terrace is careful in a way worth repeating: the form of the stupa itself is a supposition — an inverted bowl or almsbowl shape — because the upper structure is gone. Twelve smaller chedis stand on the axes, three to a side, built of laterite and brick set in earth mortar with lotus-moulding bases and three projections a side, their upper parts collapsed and presumed to have been small versions of the same inverted-bowl form. Eight further subsidiary chedis stand west and north-west of the core, surviving only as footings, and those footings are not all the same: circular, octagonal, plain square and redented square. There is a masonry base for a dharmachakra pillar, and seven more mounds the department lists without interpreting.
The state registered it in March 1963, in the same announcement as the city itself and the outer prang, with a land boundary of about 15 rai 1 ngan — a small area for a monument of this size, which is one reason the 2020 submission the register cites was prepared. The department has restored it and opened it as a cultural heritage site for general visiting, and in September 2023 UNESCO inscribed it as one of the three components of the Si Thep property, describing it as the largest Dvaravati monument still standing.
One oddity in the record is worth flagging rather than tidying. The register's citation for the architectural description of Khao Klang Nok names the Regional Office 4 Lopburi submission for a different monument — the ancient monument of วัดเมืองเก่าเวสาลี — while its citation for the history names the Khao Klang Nok submission correctly. The same mismatched citation appears on the Khao Thamorrat record. Both look like data entry rather than substance, but they mean the department's own provenance trail for two World Heritage components points at the wrong document, and that is the kind of thing a reader deserves to be told.
The principal chedi: a square redented base 64 by 64 metres in laterite and brick, two stacked tiers above a plinth, each tier ringed with miniature buildings that make five projections on every side, with a stair up the middle of each face.
The circumambulation terrace above the second tier, running the whole way round the core. What stood on the core is gone; the department's description of it as an inverted-bowl form is explicitly a supposition.
Twelve directional chedis on the axes, three to a side, with lotus-moulding bases and three projections each, all of them broken off above the base.
Eight small subsidiary chedis to the west and north-west, surviving as footings only — and the footings are four different plans: circular, octagonal, square, and square with redents.
The brick and mortar base that carried a dharmachakra pillar, and seven low mounds the register records without saying what they were.
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 open archaeological site with no shade and no religious dress requirement. Sun protection matters more than sleeves here. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | About two kilometres north of the inner town of Si Thep and outside both circuits of wall, reached by road from the park entrance. It is a separate stop from the monuments inside the walls rather than a walk from them. |
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.
No, despite the name. Khao Klang Nok stands on flat ground about two kilometres north of the walled city. The mound was taken for a storehouse before it was excavated, which is where the name comes from.
The principal chedi's base is 64 metres square, in laterite and brick, with twelve directional chedis around it and eight smaller ones to the west and north-west. UNESCO calls it the largest surviving Dvaravati monument.
Yes. UNESCO names the Khao Klang Nok ancient monument as one of the three components of property 1662, inscribed in 2023. Oddly, the Fine Arts Department's own register record for it carries a flag saying it is not a World Heritage site.
None that could be found. Neither the register, nor the 1963 registering instrument, nor the park material carries a foundation story or a chronicle account, so this record has no tradition half at all.
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 Phetchabun’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.