The one lotus-bud chedi in Phitsanulok — the pure Sukhothai form that appears nowhere else in the province — standing 22.70 metres on a square plinth outside the old east wall, restored in the 1990s, never excavated until the Fine Arts Department funded a dig in B.E. 2564.
วัดเจดีย์ยอดทอง · Wat Chedi Yot Thong
| Official name | วัดเจดีย์ยอดทอง — Wat Chedi Yot Thong |
|---|---|
| Where | Nai Mueang, Mueang Phitsanulok, Phitsanulok |
| 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 Registration: Royal Gazette vol. 53, part 34, 27 September B.E. 2479, under the name วัดยอดทอง. Monument land boundary: announcement of the Director-General of the Fine Arts Department signed 29 June B.E. 2544, published in Royal Gazette vol. 118, special part 124 ง, 17 December B.E. 2544, p. 1, fixing the monument land at approximately 8 rai 2 ngan 50 square wa. Both citations were read from the Royal Gazette itself in this run. The announcement states that the temple had been registered in vol. 53, part 34 of 27 September B.E. 2479 but that no monument land boundary had been fixed at that time, and proceeds under section 7 of the Act on Ancient Monuments, Antiques, Objects of Art and National Museums B.E. 2504. THE AREA IS WHERE A DEPARTMENT PAGE AND THE DEPARTMENT'S OWN ANNOUNCEMENT DISAGREE: the Fine Arts Department's published account of this temple gives 8 rai 2 ngan 90 square wa; the gazette text reads 8 rai 2 ngan 50 square wa. The gazette figure is printed here because the gazette is the instrument and the article is a description of it. The department's account also gives 29 June B.E. 2544 as the date of the announcement without noting that publication followed on 17 December. |
| Coordinates | 16.824421, 100.268645 Fine Arts Department, FADGIS monument layer, monument id 0004623, read in WGS84 in this run |
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 department is explicit that this chedi has been restored but never systematically excavated, which is why the period attribution rests on form rather than on stratigraphy. It is also explicit that what a visitor sees has been eroded from what was registered: the moat has been filled on the east and west sides, the north side left shallow and the south turned into the temple's fish pond, and the ground in front of the principal chedi, where the wihan stands, is now the car park for people coming to the temple.
Wat Chedi Yot Thong stands east of the old Phitsanulok wall on Thanon Phaya Suea, the same road as Wat Aranyik. What makes it matter is a single building: a chedi in the phum khao bin form, the lotus-bud, which is the shape Sukhothai invented and which the Fine Arts Department calls the only clear surviving piece of Sukhothai architecture in the province. The form is common at Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai and turns up in Tak, Kamphaeng Phet and Phetchabun; in Phitsanulok there is this one and no other.
The registration history is unusually clean, and both halves of it were read from the Royal Gazette in this run. The department registered the monument on 27 September B.E. 2479 under the name Wat Yot Thong, in vol. 53, part 34 — the same announcement that covered Wat Nang Phaya and Wat Mai Aphaiyaram. It did not fix a land boundary at the time. Sixty-five years later the Director-General signed an announcement doing so, and it appeared in the gazette on 17 December B.E. 2544 giving the monument land as about 8 rai 2 ngan 50 square wa, with a survey plan attached. The department's own published account of the temple gives that area as 8 rai 2 ngan 90 square wa; the announcement it is describing says 50. This page prints the gazette.
The B.E. 2544 survey is the best physical description of the site anyone has published. The chedi stands on a square plinth 12.25 metres a side and rises 22.70 metres, inside a wall 14.50 metres square with a base half a metre thick and entrances a metre wide to the north and south. There are niches on all four faces, and each holds a standing stucco Buddha whose head, body and arms have gone. In front of the chedi are the brick footings of a wihan, 25 by 10 metres, standing about 30 centimetres above the ground and mostly under the zinc-roofed building the temple put up over them. Around the whole runs a moat about 90 by 100 metres.
That moat is now largely gone and the survey says exactly how. The east and west arms were filled during work on the compound, the north arm is shallow because it was never dredged, and the south arm is the temple's fish pond. The department reads the moat as the ancient one, dug round the monastery in the Sukhothai manner, and infers from the plan that the ground in front of the principal chedi must be the wihan's — which is why it is significant that the same ground is now where people park.
The chedi itself was restored in about B.E. 2533–2534, the chedi alone and nothing else, and had still never been archaeologically excavated when the 6th Regional Office at Sukhothai proposed a dig. Two million baht was allocated in the B.E. 2564 budget year, and the department's stated purpose was to produce the evidence a restoration and landscaping plan would need. So this is a monument that has been repaired before it was understood, and the department says so in its own words.
The name is explained by a story the department is careful to attribute rather than assert. Boonchod Saengtai, writing a guide to Song Khwae in B.E. 2477, described a tall chedi like a prang whose finial was of real gold, shot off by Burmese cannon and carried away, leaving the truncated top; Huan Phinthuphan repeated it in B.E. 2514. Both passages are quoted on the department's page as local accounts, and both are the reason the temple is called the chedi with the golden top.
The chedi: the lotus-bud form of Sukhothai, on a square plinth 12.25 metres a side, 22.70 metres high, per the Fine Arts Department's registration survey of B.E. 2544. The Tourism Authority of Thailand gives a base of about 9 metres and a height of 21 metres for the same building; both figures are printed here and neither is preferred.
The niches on all four faces of the chedi, each holding a standing stucco Buddha of which head, body and arms are lost — recorded in the department's survey and among the few pieces of sculpture left on the site.
The truncated top, where the plaster has flaked enough to show that the point of the lotus bud was built up with added stucco. The tourism authority points this out; the department quotes the local account that the original finial was gold and was shot away by Burmese cannon.
The brick footings of the wihan in front of the chedi — 25 by 10 metres, about 30 centimetres proud of the ground, and largely under the temple's zinc-roofed building. The ground in front of the principal chedi is now used for parking.
What survives of the moat: about 90 by 100 metres as registered, with the east and west arms filled in, the north arm shallow and undredged, and the south arm converted into the temple's fish pond.
The enclosing wall, 14.50 metres square with a base half a metre thick and metre-wide openings to north and south, from the same survey.
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 | Not established from an official source. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | 26/16 Thanon Phaya Suea, Tambon Nai Mueang, Mueang Phitsanulok 65000 — the address on the tourism authority's page — east of the old city wall on the east bank of the Nan, on the same road as Wat Aranyik. The tourism authority lists parking on site and a telephone number of 0 5525 2742. |
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 of its shape. It is a phum khao bin — a lotus-bud chedi — which is the form Sukhothai devised and which the Fine Arts Department describes as the only clear surviving example of Sukhothai architecture in Phitsanulok. The form is common in Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai and is found in Tak, Kamphaeng Phet and Phetchabun; in this province there is this one and no other. The department also notes that only two other lotus-bud chedis are known with niches on all four sides, at Wat Traphang Ngoen and Wat Om Rop.
Yes, and both citations were read from the Royal Gazette itself. The Fine Arts Department registered it on 27 September B.E. 2479 in vol. 53, part 34, under the name Wat Yot Thong, without fixing a land boundary. The Director-General's announcement fixing that boundary at about 8 rai 2 ngan 50 square wa was signed on 29 June B.E. 2544 and published in vol. 118, special part 124 ง on 17 December B.E. 2544. The department's own web account of the temple gives the area as 90 rather than 50 square wa; the gazette is the instrument and this page follows it.
Two state sources disagree and both are given here. The Fine Arts Department's registration survey of B.E. 2544 gives a square plinth 12.25 metres a side and a height of 22.70 metres, inside a wall 14.50 metres square. The Tourism Authority of Thailand gives a base of about 9 metres and a height of 21 metres. This guide prints both rather than averaging them or choosing the more official-looking one.
Not until recently, and that is the department's own point. The chedi was restored in about B.E. 2533–2534 — the chedi alone — but had never been systematically excavated, which the 6th Regional Office at Sukhothai gave as the reason for proposing a dig. Two million baht was allocated in the B.E. 2564 budget year to study the site and produce the evidence a restoration and landscaping plan would need. No report of the results was reachable for this page.
From a local account the Fine Arts Department quotes rather than asserts. Boonchod Saengtai, writing about Song Khwae in B.E. 2477, described a tall chedi whose finial was of real gold, shot off by Burmese cannon and taken away, leaving the blunt top the building still has; Huan Phinthuphan repeated the account in B.E. 2514. The tourism authority notes that where the plaster has flaked at the top, the point of the lotus bud can be seen to have been built up with added stucco.
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 Phitsanulok’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.