The only Dhammayuttika royal monastery in Phetchaburi, on the eastern shoulder of Khao Wang below King Mongkut's palace — the temple he lived in as a monk in the 1820s, restored and renamed at his order thirty-five years later, and painted inside by Khrua In Khong.
วัดมหาสมณารามราชวรวิหาร · Wat Mahasamanaram Ratchaworawihan
| Official name | วัดมหาสมณารามราชวรวิหาร — Wat Mahasamanaram Ratchaworawihan |
|---|---|
| Where | Khlong Krachaeng, Mueang Phetchaburi, Phetchaburi |
| Royal temple class | Second class royal temple, Ratchaworawihan (พระอารามหลวงชั้นโท ชนิดราชวรวิหาร) The National Office of Buddhism's Phetchaburi provincial office lists it as the province's only Dhammayuttika royal monastery, วัดมหาสมณารามราชวรวิหาร (พระอารามหลวงชั้นโท ชนิดราชวรวิหาร), in its annual reports for B.E. 2566 and for 2025, and the temple's own official name carries ราช in it. The Fine Arts Department register writes the sub-rank differently, as ชั้นโท ชนิดวรวิหาร; where the two arms of the state disagree, the Office of Buddhism is the register of royal grades and is followed here, with the department's wording printed beside it. |
| Monastic order | Dhammayuttika Nikaya |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument Royal Gazette vol. 71 part 3, 5 January B.E. 2497; boundary vol. 101 special part 27, p. 13, 1 March B.E. 2527 Like Wat Ko Kaeo Suttharam, this temple is absent from the 1935 national list and arrives on the register in the announcement of 5 January B.E. 2497, where it is item 3 of the Phetchaburi section — วัดมหาสมณาราม, Tambon Khlong Krachaeng — at an area of about 5 rai 50 square wa. The boundary order of 1 March B.E. 2527 then fixes the monument land at 1 rai 3 ngan 28 square wa, which is the figure the register's structured area field carries. The two gazetted areas differ by a wide margin, both were read firsthand in this run, and nothing found here explains the change; both are printed. The hill itself is a separate monument: Khao Wang, meaning Phra Nakhon Khiri on the summit, is item 7 of the Phetchaburi block in the 1935 list and has its own register entry. |
| Coordinates | 13.109765, 99.938501 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0004979 (GPS) |
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.
Nothing read in this run says when the temple began or who began it. The register calls it เป็นวัดที่มีมาเดิม — a temple that was already there — and then moves straight to the nineteenth century. Its earlier names, Wat Samana and Wat Maha Samun, are recorded without a date attached to either, and the popular name Wat Khao Wang comes from the hill and the palace on it rather than from the monastery.
Wat Mahasamanaram stands on the eastern shoulder of Khao Mahaisawan, the hill in the middle of Phetchaburi that everybody calls Khao Wang. The palace on the summit came later and is a separate monument; this temple was already on the hillside, under the names Wat Samana and Wat Maha Samun, when the man who would become King Mongkut stayed here in B.E. 2367 during his years in the monkhood. The Fine Arts Department register records that stay as a fact of the temple's history, and it is the hinge of everything that followed.
Thirty-five years later he was king, he was building Phra Nakhon Khiri on the hill above, and he ordered the temple he had lived in restored. The register dates that work to B.E. 2402 and 2403 and records that he gave it the name it now carries, Wat Mahasamanaram — the great monastery of the ascetic. It is the province's only royal monastery of the Dhammayuttika order, the reform order Mongkut himself had founded, and the National Office of Buddhism's provincial office lists it as such: a royal monastery of the second class, of the Ratchaworawihan type.
That grade is worth a note, because two arms of the state write it differently. The Office of Buddhism gives Ratchaworawihan, and the temple's own official name carries the ราช in it. The Fine Arts Department register writes the same temple as a second-class royal monastery of the plain Worawihan type. The difference is one syllable and one step of precedence, and it is not trivial in a system where the rank is the point. The Office of Buddhism is the register of royal grades and this page follows it, with the department's wording set beside it rather than quietly dropped.
The ordination hall is why art historians come. Its murals are the work of Khrua In Khong, the monk-painter of Mongkut's reign who is the figure every history of Thai painting has to deal with — the man who took Western perspective, Western modelling and Western landscape into Thai mural painting and used them to paint riddles rather than narratives. Three Phetchaburi state bodies name him for this hall: the provincial public relations office, the provincial administrative organisation, and the town municipality, whose description of the building is a medium-sized Thai hall with a double-tiered roof of glazed tile carrying cho fa, bai raka and hang hong.
Two further things the department's own record notes about the place, both practical. Its component list includes a kamphaeng kaeo, the low enclosing wall, and its condition assessment says the wall was not found. And it records that there are monkeys throughout the compound, which anyone who has walked up Khao Wang will already know and anyone who has not should be told. It is an active royal monastery. BAANLYY does not represent it and nothing here is religious advice.
The ordination hall and its murals, the work of Khrua In Khong — the monk-painter of King Mongkut's reign who brought Western perspective and modelling into Thai wall painting. Phetchaburi's provincial public relations office, the provincial administrative organisation and the town municipality all name him for this hall.
The hall itself, described by the municipality as a medium-sized building in the Thai manner with a double-tiered roof of glazed tile, carrying cho fa, bai raka and hang hong.
Tham Phra Phutthakhosachan, the cave within the compound, which the Fine Arts Department carries as a named component of the monument.
The vihara and the bell tower, the other two structures the department lists.
The place where the kamphaeng kaeo should be. The department's component list includes the low enclosing wall and its own condition note records that the wall was not found — a small, honest entry of the kind registers rarely publish.
The position on the hillside itself, on the eastern shoulder of Khao Mahaisawan below Phra Nakhon Khiri, which is separately registered as a monument in its own right. The department also notes monkeys throughout the compound.
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 active royal monastery of the Dhammayuttika order. Shoulders and knees covered; shoes off before the ordination hall. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On the eastern shoulder of Khao Mahaisawan (Khao Wang), Tambon Khlong Krachaeng, Mueang Phetchaburi. The hillside position means a climb on foot. The Fine Arts Department register notes monkeys throughout the compound; food and loose bags are best kept out of sight. |
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.
He lived there, and then he renamed it. The Fine Arts Department register records that the future King Mongkut stayed at this temple in B.E. 2367, during his long period in the monkhood before he came to the throne, when the place was known as Wat Samana or Wat Maha Samun. Later, as king, while he was having the palace of Phra Nakhon Khiri built on the summit of the same hill, he ordered the temple restored — the register dates that work to B.E. 2402 and 2403 — and bestowed on it the name Wat Mahasamanaram that it carries today.
Khrua In Khong, according to three Phetchaburi state bodies: the provincial public relations office, the provincial administrative organisation and the town municipality. He was a monk-painter of King Mongkut's reign and the central figure in the history of nineteenth-century Thai painting, the man who took Western perspective, modelling and landscape into a Thai mural tradition that had never used them and painted allegories rather than narratives with them. None of the three sources dates the work, and the Fine Arts Department register lists the paintings as a component of the monument without dating them either.
It is a royal monastery of the second class, and the disagreement is over the sub-rank. The National Office of Buddhism's Phetchaburi provincial office lists it as ชั้นโท ชนิดราชวรวิหาร — Ratchaworawihan — and as the only Dhammayuttika royal monastery in the province, and the temple's own official name carries ราช in it. The Fine Arts Department's national monument register writes the same temple as ชั้นโท ชนิดวรวิหาร, the plain Worawihan. The Office of Buddhism is the register of royal grades, so this page follows it and prints the department's wording alongside rather than dropping it.
No. Phra Nakhon Khiri is King Mongkut's palace complex on the summit, a ticketed historical park managed by the Fine Arts Department, and it has been on the national monuments list in its own right since the announcement of B.E. 2478, where it appears under the name Khao Wang. Wat Mahasamanaram is a working royal monastery on the eastern shoulder of the same hill, registered separately in B.E. 2497. The park's opening hours and admission charges belong to the park and should not be assumed to apply to the temple.
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 Phetchaburi’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.