The first-class royal monastery on the east bank of the Nan, and the home of the Phra Phuttha Chinnarat — the bronze image that Thai sources have called the most beautiful in the country for six centuries, under a carved flame-shaped aureole, behind doors inlaid with mother-of-pearl in B.E. 2299.
วัดพระศรีรัตนมหาธาตุวรมหาวิหาร · Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Woramahawihan
| Official name | วัดพระศรีรัตนมหาธาตุวรมหาวิหาร — Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Woramahawihan |
|---|---|
| Where | Nai Mueang, Mueang Phitsanulok, Phitsanulok |
| Royal temple class | First class royal temple, Woramahawihan (ชั้นเอก วรมหาวิหาร) The National Office of Buddhism's Phitsanulok provincial office, which records that King Vajiravudh raised the temple to พระอารามหลวง ชั้นเอก ชนิดวรมหาวิหาร in B.E. 2458; the Government Public Relations Department's Phitsanulok office gives the same grade and sub-rank; and the Fine Arts Department's national monument register carries วรมหาวิหาร inside the temple's official name. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument Read directly from the Fine Arts Department's own register in this run. The department's monument service returns this temple under monument id 0004616 with the status line โบราณสถานขึ้นทะเบียนและกำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน — registered, and with the monument's land boundary determined — and its GIS monument layer carries the same site at register status 5, which is that same status in the renderer's own value table. No gazette citation is printed because none was read: the two Phitsanulok announcements opened in this run cover Wat Yot Thong and Wat Nang Phaya, not this temple. |
| Coordinates | 16.823731, 100.261865 Fine Arts Department, FADGIS monument layer, monument id 0004616, 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.
Three arms of the Thai state give three different answers and it is worth being specific about which. The National Office of Buddhism states a construction in B.E. 1900 by Maha Thammaracha I flatly, as fact. The Public Relations Department writes that there is no evidence of when the temple was built, supposes it to be older than Sukhothai, and hands the B.E. 1900 figure to the Northern Chronicle. The Tourism Authority of Thailand says the temple went up together with the founding of the city in B.E. 1900, and then, further down the same page, dates the Phra Atthar — which it says was made at the same time as the Phra Phuttha Chinnarat — to about B.E. 1800. That is a hundred years of daylight inside one page. This guide prints no founding year for this temple.
Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat stands on Thanon Phutthabucha on the east bank of the Nan, directly opposite the provincial hall, and everyone in Phitsanulok calls it Wat Yai — the big temple. It is a first-class royal monastery of the Woramahawihan sub-rank, a grade King Vajiravudh conferred in B.E. 2458, and it is one of the small number of Thai temples a new king is expected to visit. The National Office of Buddhism's provincial office gives the compound as 36 rai 2 ngan 54 square wa.
The reason for all of that is a single object. The Phra Phuttha Chinnarat is a bronze Buddha in the attitude of subduing Mara, gilded, seated under a wooden aureole carved in the Ayutthaya period with a makara at each end of the arch and a hera at its centre. The National Office of Buddhism gives the image as 5 sok 1 khuep 5 niu across the lap and 7 sok 1 khuep high; the tourism authority gives the same lap measurement and a height of 7 sok, and the difference of one khuep between two state sources is left standing here rather than averaged. What is agreed is the detail that Thai writing on the image always reaches for: the four fingers of the hand end level with one another, a feature called thikhangkuli, and it is the softness of the outline rather than any single feature that has kept the image's reputation intact.
The temple's beginning is not documented and this page does not pretend otherwise. The Northern Chronicle puts a building campaign under Maha Thammaracha Lithai about B.E. 1900 — a prang at the centre, wihan on four sides, a double cloister, three images cast for three halls — and that account is the source of nearly every date attached to this temple in English. The Public Relations Department's own page says plainly that there is no evidence of when the temple was built. The National Office of Buddhism states the chronicle's year as fact. The reader is entitled to know that those two pages are both official and do not agree.
What is dated, and interestingly so, is the woodwork. The mother-of-pearl doors at the front of the wihan were made in B.E. 2299 by royal craftsmen in the reign of King Borommakot, in the last decade of Ayutthaya before the city fell. The panel down the centre carries a busabok with the Phra Unalom on its throne, hanuman bearing up the base, and a club-wielding kumphan at the foot; the leaves around it run through the animals of the Himaphan forest — rachasi, khotchasi, hemaraj, garuda, kinnari — with nine ipae roundels a side. The carved teak doors they replaced were not thrown away: they were fitted to the wihan of Wat Phra Thaen Sila At in Uttaradit, where they still are.
The prang behind the wihan is the other thing worth understanding before a visit, because it is not what it started as. The tourism authority describes it as early Ayutthaya work on a square plan with yi-sip redented corners that was originally a Sukhothai lotus-bud chedi and was converted into a prang in the Ayutthaya period; the National Office of Buddhism describes it as Sukhothai work later adapted into Ayutthaya form and gives its height as 36 metres. Either way the building in front of a visitor is a rebuilding, and the Sukhothai temple is inside it rather than in front of them.
The Phra Phuttha Chinnarat: bronze, gilded, in the attitude of subduing Mara, 5 sok 1 khuep 5 niu across the lap; the National Office of Buddhism gives its height as 7 sok 1 khuep and the tourism authority as 7 sok. The carved wooden aureole behind it is Ayutthaya work, with a makara — a dragon-bodied creature with an elephant's trunk — at the end of the arch, a crocodile-like hera at the centre, and two guardian figures.
The mother-of-pearl doors of B.E. 2299, made by royal craftsmen under King Borommakot: a central rib of phum khao bin ornament, kanok kan yaeng on either side, a lozenge panel called the nom ok lao holding a busabok with the Phra Unalom, three-tiered ceremonial parasols flanking it, hanuman under the base and a kumphan below.
The prang, 36 metres high according to the National Office of Buddhism, on a square plan with yi-sip redenting; the tourism authority records that it began as a Sukhothai lotus-bud chedi and was converted to a prang under Ayutthaya. The relics are recorded in a small chedi inside the chamber at its summit.
The four wihan on the cardinal sides — of the Phra Phuttha Chinnarat, the Phra Phuttha Chinnasi, the Phra Si Sasada and the Phra Atthar — and the ubosot, which the National Office of Buddhism records as Sukhothai work later adapted into Ayutthaya form.
The Phra Atthar: a standing image 18 sok high behind the wihan, in the attitude of forbidding the kinsmen. The great hall it stood in has gone; three or four massive laterite columns remain, and the mound is called the Nern Wihan Kao Hong, the mound of the nine-bay wihan.
The Wihan Phra Lue, under three bodhi trees on a single platform called the Pho Sam Sao. The tourism authority records that the bronze left over from casting the Chinnarat, the Chinnasi and the Si Sasada was melted together into a small image of subduing Mara with two standing disciples, and that the bricks of the smelting furnace were gathered onto the platform with it.
The Wihan Phra Chao Khao Nipphan, also called the Wihan Klaep, south of the Phra Si Sasada hall: a stone casket representing the Buddha's coffin, lacquered and set with glass, with the feet projecting slightly at one end and the five ascetics ranged round the base in mourning.
The Phra Phuttha Chinnarat National Museum inside the compound, which the tourism authority gives as open daily 09.00–16.00 on 0 5524 1717 — a separate institution from the temple, with its own hours.
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 | Open daily 05.00–19.00, from the Tourism Authority of Thailand's attraction page for the temple, read through a rendering browser in this run. The Phra Phuttha Chinnarat National Museum inside the compound keeps different hours — daily 09.00–16.00 — on the same page. |
|---|---|
| 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 | Thanon Phutthabucha, Tambon Nai Mueang, Mueang Phitsanulok 65000, on the east bank of the Nan opposite the provincial hall; the National Office of Buddhism gives the address as 92/3. The tourism authority lists parking on site and a telephone number of 0 5525 8966. |
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.
Nobody official agrees, and the disagreement is the honest answer. The Northern Chronicle places a building campaign under Maha Thammaracha Lithai about B.E. 1900 and the National Office of Buddhism prints that as fact. The Government Public Relations Department's page says in terms that there is no evidence of when the temple was built and supposes it to be older than Sukhothai. The Tourism Authority of Thailand says it went up with the founding of the city in B.E. 1900, then dates an image it calls contemporary with the principal Buddha to about B.E. 1800. This guide prints the rank, which is documented, and leaves the founding open.
It is a royal monastery of the first class, sub-rank Woramahawihan. The National Office of Buddhism's Phitsanulok provincial office records that King Vajiravudh conferred that grade in B.E. 2458, which is why the full name ends in วรมหาวิหาร, and the Public Relations Department's provincial office gives the same grade. The Fine Arts Department's monument register carries the sub-rank inside the official name as well, so three state sources agree on this even though they disagree about the temple's age.
Because of the modelling rather than any single feature. Thai sources describe the outline of the body as unusually soft, the brows as strongly arched, the flame finial, and a detail called thikhangkuli — the four fingers of the hand ending level with one another. It sits under an Ayutthaya-period carved wooden aureole with a makara at the end of the arch and a hera at its centre. It is bronze, gilded, in the attitude of subduing Mara, and the National Office of Buddhism gives it as 5 sok 1 khuep 5 niu across the lap.
The doors at the front of the wihan, made in B.E. 2299 by royal craftsmen in the reign of King Borommakot — the last generation of Ayutthaya court work. The central rib carries a busabok holding the Phra Unalom, with hanuman bearing up the base and a club-bearing kumphan at the foot, and the leaves run through the animals of the Himaphan forest with nine roundels a side. The carved teak doors they replaced were reused at Wat Phra Thaen Sila At in Uttaradit.
Daily from 05.00 to 19.00, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand's page for the temple, which was opened in a rendering browser for this run. The Phra Phuttha Chinnarat National Museum inside the compound is open daily 09.00 to 16.00 and is a separate institution. No official source consulted publishes an admission charge for the temple, so this guide prints none.
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.