A reclining Buddha about forty-three metres long at the south-eastern foot of Khao Wang, made in the open air and later roofed over — so completely that the rock of the hillside itself does duty as part of the hall wall behind it. Its soles are painted in gold with a full set of auspicious signs.
วัดพระพุทธไสยาสน์ (วัดพระนอน) · Wat Phra Phuttha Saiyat
| Official name | วัดพระพุทธไสยาสน์ (วัดพระนอน) — Wat Phra Phuttha Saiyat |
|---|---|
| Where | Khlong Krachaeng, Mueang Phetchaburi, Phetchaburi |
| 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. 52, p. 3693, 8 March B.E. 2478; boundary vol. 101 special part 27, p. 21, 1 March B.E. 2527 Item 4 of the Phetchaburi block in the national list of 8 March B.E. 2478, written there as วัดพระนอน อำเภอคลองกระแชง ตำบลคลองกระแชง — the only one of the temples in this batch whose 1935 subdistrict is the one it still carries, because the subdistrict survived the redrawing that abolished the district. The monument land was fixed by the boundary order of 1 March B.E. 2527 in two zones: zone ก. of about 5 rai 76 square wa and zone ข. of about 75 square wa. Both scans were read as text in this run and the register's structured area fields carry the same two figures. |
| Coordinates | 13.106402, 99.940125 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0005036 (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.
No source read in this run gives a year for the temple or a name for whoever made the reclining Buddha. What is documented is a sequence rather than a date: an image made in the open, a hall raised over it later, walls already decayed by the reign of King Nangklao, and a poet passing through and writing the place down.
Wat Phra Phuttha Saiyat is on Thanon Khiri Ratthaya at the south-eastern foot of Khao Mahaisawan, the hill everyone in Phetchaburi calls Khao Wang because King Mongkut put a palace on top of it. The temple is older than the palace and has nothing to do with it. What people come for is a single object: a reclining Buddha of brick and stucco, lacquered and gilt, which the Tourism Authority of Thailand measures in the old units as 21 wa 1 sok 1 khuep 7 nio and converts to about forty-three metres. It rests on a platform a metre or so high, and it is hollow inside.
The most interesting thing about the building is that it came second. Both the Fine Arts Department register and the Tourism Authority record that the image was first made in the open air, and that the hall was raised over it later with walls built around it. The department adds the detail that makes this concrete: the Buddha's back rests against the rock of the hill behind, and that rock serves as part of the wall of the hall. The hall itself sits on the shoulder of the slope some fifteen metres up, brick and stucco in the Thai manner, laid out along the line of the hillside rather than on a level platform. The image faces south with its head to the west, which is unusual and is what the register records.
The soles are the detail worth walking round for. The Tourism Authority lists what is painted on them in gold: a palace tower, Phra Phrom, the tiered umbrella and the great crown, an alms bowl, a water ewer, a conch, a sword, an elephant, a fish, a golden tray, a palm-leaf fan, a peacock-feather fan and a crystal lotus. The department separately records that the toes are worked with spiral whorls. This is the standard repertoire of auspicious marks, but it is rare to find it set out on a state page item by item, and it is the sort of thing a visitor can check against the object in front of them.
The age of the temple is not established and both state sources say so in the same word. The Fine Arts Department writes สันนิษฐาน — it is supposed — that the place existed in the Ayutthaya period, and the Tourism Authority uses the identical formula. What the department does have is two pieces of evidence for the temple already being old by the early nineteenth century: Sunthorn Phu's Nirat Mueang Phet, written in the reign of King Nangklao, names it; and a royal remark about the badly decayed walls of the hall implies walls that had already stood a long time. That is a floor rather than a founding.
It is a working temple and a small compound with a good deal in it besides the great image: a scripture library in teak, a bell tower in the form of a Chinese pavilion, a mondop holding two sandstone Buddha heads, and a crowned Ayutthaya image the Tourism Authority compares to the principal Buddha at Wat Na Phra Men in Ayutthaya. BAANLYY does not represent the temple and nothing here is religious advice.
The reclining Buddha itself — brick and stucco, lacquered and gilt, about forty-three metres long, on a platform about a metre high, hollow inside, facing south with the head to the west. Its back rests against the rock of the hill, and the Fine Arts Department records that the rock does duty as part of the wall of the hall behind it. The toes carry spiral whorls.
The soles, painted in gold. The Tourism Authority sets out what is on them: a palace tower, Phra Phrom, the tiered umbrella and the great crown, an alms bowl, a water ewer, a conch, a sword, an elephant, a fish, a golden tray, a palm-leaf fan, a peacock-feather fan and a crystal lotus.
The hall over the image, on the hillside about fifteen metres up, brick and stucco in the Thai manner, laid out along the line of the slope. It was built after the image, which was first made under the open sky.
The Mondop Phra Chai on the north-eastern shoulder above the hall — brick and stucco, plastered over its whole surface including the roof, holding two Buddha heads of red sandstone.
The small vihara north-east of the reclining Buddha, with a crowned Buddha of the Ayutthaya period in a tall theroet crown with pendant earrings. The Tourism Authority compares it to the principal image at Wat Na Phra Men in Ayutthaya, and records several Ayutthaya stone Buddhas beside it with an outlined line to the lips.
The Wihan Phra Phuttha Chai, whose distemper murals show the Buddha with his chief disciples, and which holds a modelled likeness of the abbot Phra Khru Suchat Methachan that the Tourism Authority records he made himself.
The ho trai — a two-storey teak building on open ground floor, the scripture cabinets upstairs, panelled walls of the fa pakon luk fak type with windows all round — and in front of it the bell tower, brick and stucco in the form of a Chinese pavilion with no walls at all, only chamfered square columns inside and out. A well the Tourism Authority describes as over a hundred years old stands in 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 | 08.00–17.00 daily |
|---|---|
| Admission | Not established from an official source. |
| Dress | A working temple. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before the hall of the reclining Buddha, and do not point the feet towards the image. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Thanon Khiri Ratthaya, Tambon Khlong Krachaeng, Mueang Phetchaburi 76000, at the south-eastern foot of Khao Mahaisawan — Khao Wang. The hall stands on the hillside about fifteen metres above the compound floor, reached on foot. The Tourism Authority records parking and toilets on site. |
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.
About forty-three metres. The Tourism Authority of Thailand gives the length in the traditional Thai units first — 21 wa, 1 sok, 1 khuep and 7 nio — and converts that to approximately 43 metres, and the Fine Arts Department register independently records about 43 metres. The image is brick and stucco, lacquered and gilt, hollow inside, and rests on a platform roughly a metre high with its head to the west and its face to the south. It is among the largest reclining Buddha images in Thailand.
Because the image came first and the building came second. Both the Fine Arts Department register and the Tourism Authority record that the reclining Buddha was originally made under the open sky, and that a roof and walls were put up around it afterwards. The department adds that the image's back rests directly against the rock of the hill behind, and that this rock serves as part of the wall of the hall. The result is a building fitted to an object rather than the other way round.
No. The temple stands at the south-eastern foot of the same hill, Khao Mahaisawan, but it is a separate monastery with its own register entry and its own registration, and it is older than the palace. King Mongkut's Phra Nakhon Khiri is on the summit and is carried by the Fine Arts Department as a separate monument, listed in the national announcement of B.E. 2478 under the name Khao Wang in its own right. Confusing the two is easy from a distance and wrong on the ground.
08.00 to 17.00 daily, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. That figure is taken from the prose body of the authority's attraction page for this temple, read in a rendering browser for this run on 8 September 2026, where it appears as a plain sentence at the end of the description. It is not from the structured opening-hours block on the same page, which is a live open-or-closed widget and carries no times on any page of that site. This is the only temple in this Phetchaburi batch for which any state source publishes times.
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.