One monastery that used to be three, in the old walled town: Wat Sing, Wat Suea and Wat Phra Kaeo merged under the middle name, with two chedis registered as separate national monuments in the same 1940 instrument.
วัดพระแก้ว · Wat Phra Kaeo
| Official name | วัดพระแก้ว — Wat Phra Kaeo |
|---|---|
| Where | Nai Mueang (ในเมือง), Mueang Phetchabun (เมืองเพชรบูรณ์), 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. 57, p. 807, 18 June B.E. 2483 — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร กำหนดจำนวนโบราณวัตถุสถานสำหรับชาติ, จังหวัดเพ็ชรบูรณ์ section, item 3: วัดพระแก้ว อำเภอเมืองเพชรบูรณ์ ตำบลในเมือง. Item 4 of the same instrument is พระเจดีย์หลังโบสถ์ วัดสิงห์, in the same subdistrict. Read from the department's own scan of the instrument with Thai optical character recognition. The pairing of items 3 and 4 is the point of this record. In 1940 the state registered Wat Phra Kaeo as one monument and the chedi behind the ordination hall at Wat Sing as another, because they were two different monasteries. They are now one: the department's register states that all three of the monasteries in that row — Wat Sing to the north, Wat Suea to the south and Wat Phra Kaeo in the middle — have merged into a single monastery under the Wat Phra Kaeo name, with monks in residence. So one registered monument, carried separately as number 0004665, now stands inside another registered monument's compound. |
| Coordinates | 16.419871, 101.165689 Fine Arts Department national ancient monument register, monument 0004666 วัดพระแก้ว, ตำบลในเมือง อำเภอเมืองเพชรบูรณ์ 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.
So the register gives a very precise architectural reading of the chedi and a very vague age for the place it stands in, and the entry prints both as they are.
There is a row of monastery ground in ตำบลในเมือง, inside the old earth wall of Phetchabun, where three monasteries once stood side by side. The Fine Arts Department's register names them: Wat Sing at the north end, Wat Suea at the south, and Wat Phra Kaeo in the middle. They are now one monastery, under the middle name, with monks in residence. The register states the merger as a fact of the present without dating it, and that leaves an odd situation in the legal record: the 1940 national list registered Wat Phra Kaeo as item 3 and the chedi behind the ordination hall at Wat Sing as item 4, two monuments in two monasteries, and today one of those monuments stands inside the other's compound.
The register's description of the Wat Phra Kaeo chedi is the most detailed piece of architectural writing on this page, and it is worth following. The department reads it as a prang-form chedi in brick and mortar. At the bottom, a single plain plinth. On that, an octagonal base. On that, three sets of lion-form mouldings stacked one above another. Above them the body of the tower, which the register records as damaged continuously upward from the base, with a niche at the middle of each of its four faces that probably held an image. Above that, a roof in the redented corncob form, rising in reducing stages, the upper part and the pediments of the niches badly broken. The register then adds that the chedi has now been properly restored, so what a visitor sees is a consolidated monument rather than the ruin the description was written from.
Wat Sing's chedi is a different form — bell-shaped, standing at the back of the vihara — and its separate registration in 1940 means the state considered it worth protecting in its own right. Anyone walking the compound is therefore looking at two nationally registered monuments in two different architectural idioms, twenty metres apart, inside what is now one monastery.
What nobody has is an age. The register's only estimate is that the three monasteries are more than seven hundred years old, and it labels that a supposition. There is no inscription, no chronicle reference and no dated royal act in the record for any of the three. The 1940 registration is the first firm date in the file, which makes this a monastery whose fabric is old and whose documented history is eighty-six years long.
The Wat Phra Kaeo chedi, now restored: a prang-form tower in brick and mortar on an octagonal base over a plain plinth, with three stacked sets of lion-form mouldings, a niche in the middle of each of its four faces, and a redented corncob roof in reducing stages.
The bell-shaped chedi at the back of the vihara on the former Wat Sing ground, which the Fine Arts Department carries as monument 0004665 and which the 1940 national list registered as an item of its own.
The row itself — three monastery plots that are now one compound, running north to south, with Wat Sing at the north end and the former Wat Suea at the south.
A working monastery with monks in residence, which is what the register says the merged foundation is today.
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. Shoulders and knees covered, and shoes off before entering the ordination hall or the vihara. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | In ตำบลในเมือง inside the old town, a short walk from Wat Mahathat and Wat Trai Phum. All three of the town records on this page are within a few hundred metres of one another on the west side of the Pa Sak. |
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. That is the royal chapel inside the Grand Palace in Bangkok. This is a different monastery of the same name in the old walled town of Phetchabun, and the name is a common one across Thailand.
Because it used to be three monasteries. The 1940 national list registered the Wat Phra Kaeo chedi and, separately, the chedi behind the ordination hall at Wat Sing next door. Wat Sing, Wat Suea and Wat Phra Kaeo have since merged under the middle name.
Not established. The Fine Arts Department's register offers more than seven hundred years as a supposition and cites nothing for it. The first firm date in the file is the registration of June B.E. 2483.
A prang-form tower of brick and mortar: a plain plinth, an octagonal base, three stacked sets of lion-form mouldings, a body with a niche on each of its four faces, and a redented corncob roof in reducing stages. The register says it has now been restored.
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.