The temple two state sources date nine years apart — B.E. 2301 by the Tourism Authority, B.E. 2310 by the Fine Arts Department's own register — carrying the chronicle of the White-Blood Princess who is said to have built it on her way home to execution, and a documented history of construction disputes with the department over its own registered boundary running from 1993 to at least 2009.
วัดพระนางสร้าง · Wat Phra Nang Sang Phra Wihan
| Official name | วัดพระนางสร้าง — Wat Phra Nang Sang Phra Wihan |
|---|---|
| Where | Thep Kasattri, Thalang, Phuket |
| 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. 101, part 27 (special issue), 1 March B.E. 2527 (1984) — the original registration; and vol. 116, part special 7 ง, 22 January B.E. 2542 (1999) — a boundary amendment enlarging the registered ground Both instruments were downloaded from the Fine Arts Department's own mirror and are listed in the register's royal-notice index. The registered land is recorded as two parcels: 'พื้นที่ ก.' at 3 rai 0 ngan 87 square wa, and 'พื้นที่ ข.' at 0 rai 1 ngan 21.63 square wa, held by a delegated cleric official (พระครูปลัดองค์การ) on behalf of the Department of Religious Affairs, per the register's ownership field. The department's own reference-file index for this monument additionally records a series of internal complaints and investigations, running from 1993 through at least 2009, over construction inside the registered boundary carried out without the department's permission — filed here as a documented institutional fact, not an editorial judgement. |
| Coordinates | 8.026290, 98.332907 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0005121 |
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.
Neither state source names a document, inscription or excavation behind its founding date; the Fine Arts Department's B.E. 2310 rests on the same importance note that also supplies the wisungkhamsima date, while the Tourism Authority's B.E. 2301 is asserted without attribution on its own page. The nine-year gap is printed rather than resolved.
Wat Phra Nang Sang stands on Thep Kasattri Road in Tambon Thep Kasattri, Amphoe Thalang, about twenty kilometres north of Phuket Town on the road to the old Thalang district crossroads. It is registered as a national ancient monument — one of only two wats in this province to carry that status rather than a lesser one — under an instrument dated 1 March B.E. 2527 (1984), with a boundary amendment enlarging the registered ground in January B.E. 2542 (1999).
The two dated instruments are the surest facts about this temple; its founding is not. The Fine Arts Department's own importance note gives approximately B.E. 2310 (1767), the same year it says the temple received its royal land grant. The Tourism Authority of Thailand instead gives approximately B.E. 2301 (1758), nine years earlier, without citing a source of its own. This page states both rather than averaging them into a single confident year neither state body actually gives.
The temple's name comes from a chronicle account both bodies tell in the same terms, as a chronicle account rather than a document. A royal consort or court lady of Nakhon Si Thammarat, falsely accused of an affair with a page by a jealous minister, was condemned to death but granted leave to travel first to Sri Lanka to pay homage to the Buddha relic there. On her return she stopped at Ko Thalang and built a temple before continuing home to face her sentence — and there, the chronicle holds, her blood ran white rather than red when the sentence was carried out, earning her the name Phra Nang Lueat Khao, the White-Blood Princess, and giving the temple she is said to have built its name: Wat Phra Nang Sang, 'the temple the princess built.'
Separately from the founding legend, the Tourism Authority records a documented historical use: the temple compound served as a military encampment in B.E. 2328 (1785), during Thalang's defence against a Burmese invasion force, the campaign remembered island-wide through the heroines Thao Thep Kasattri and Thao Sri Sunthon. Inside the old ubosot, the Tourism Authority describes three tin Buddha images — said by the temple to be the largest tin Buddha images in the world, a claim this page reports rather than verifies — cast inside the bellies of three larger images and known as Phra Nai Phung, 'the Buddhas in the belly,' or Phra Sam Kasat, 'the Three Kings.' Near the ubosot entrance, in a glass case, is the preserved body of a monk known as Luang Pho Siam, or Luang Pho Bai, which the Tourism Authority describes as remaining uncorrupted.
The Fine Arts Department's own art-and-culture note dates the ubosot to the early Rattanakosin period, restored repeatedly through B.E. 2454 (1911) and again in B.E. 2460 (1917), when its roof was changed from corrugated tin to fluted tile. Inside stand four significant stucco Buddha images the department attributes to Thalang-school craftsmen working in the Rattanakosin idiom: one in the reclining, Saiyat posture, and three in the Maravijaya, subduing-Mara posture. The department's own reference-file index for this monument, running to more than forty numbered documents, also records a less celebratory thread: repeated complaints, beginning in 1993 and recurring as late as 2009, that the temple built structures inside its registered ancient-monument boundary without the department's permission, prompting investigations and formal correspondence between the department, the district and the temple's own committee. This page states that history because the department's own files state it, not to editorialise about it.
BAANLYY does not represent this temple and nothing on this page is legal or religious advice.
The three tin Buddha images cast inside the bellies of three larger cast images in the old ubosot, called Phra Nai Phung or Phra Sam Kasat, described by the temple as the largest tin Buddha images in the world — a claim reported here as the temple's own, per the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
The preserved body of Luang Pho Siam (Luang Pho Bai), displayed in a glass case near the ubosot's entrance and described by the Tourism Authority as remaining uncorrupted.
The ubosot itself, early Rattanakosin in form, restored through B.E. 2454 (1911) and re-roofed in fluted tile in B.E. 2460 (1917), per the Fine Arts Department's own art-and-culture note.
Four stucco Buddha images inside the ubosot attributed to Thalang-school craftsmen — one reclining, three in the Maravijaya posture — per the Fine Arts Department.
The registered monument boundary itself, in two parcels totalling roughly 3 rai 1 ngan 108.63 square wa, per the register's own land schedule.
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 registered ancient monument and a working temple. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before entering the ubosot. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | 148 Moo 1, Thep Kasattri Road, Thep Kasattri, Thalang, Phuket 83110. About 20 km from Phuket Town via Thep Kasattri Road to the Thalang junction; the temple stands on the north side. Phone +66 7631 1084, per the Tourism Authority of Thailand. |
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.
Not settled between the two state sources that give a figure. The Fine Arts Department's own importance note puts the founding at approximately B.E. 2310 (1767), the same year it says the temple received its royal land grant. The Tourism Authority of Thailand instead gives approximately B.E. 2301 (1758), nine years earlier, without attributing that figure to a document. This page states both rather than choosing between two arms of the Thai state.
A figure from a chronicle account both the Fine Arts Department and the Tourism Authority tell in the same terms, as tradition rather than documented history: a royal consort or court lady of Nakhon Si Thammarat, falsely accused of infidelity and condemned to death, who was granted leave to pay homage to the Buddha relic in Sri Lanka before her execution, built a temple at Ko Thalang on the way home, and whose blood is said to have run white rather than red when her sentence was carried out — giving her the name Phra Nang Lueat Khao and the temple its name, Wat Phra Nang Sang, 'the temple the princess built.'
Known as Phra Nai Phung, 'the Buddhas in the belly,' or Phra Sam Kasat, 'the Three Kings,' these are three tin images cast inside the bellies of three larger cast images inside the temple's old ubosot. The temple describes them, per the Tourism Authority of Thailand, as the largest tin Buddha images in the world — a claim this page reports as the temple's own rather than as an independently verified fact, since no state or academic source consulted corroborates the superlative.
Yes. It is one of only two temples in this Phuket batch registered under the Ancient Monuments Act, first registered by an instrument of 1 March B.E. 2527 (1984) and with its protected boundary enlarged by a further instrument of 22 January B.E. 2542 (1999). The Fine Arts Department's own reference-file index for the monument also documents a series of disputes over construction inside that boundary carried out without the department's permission, recurring from 1993 through at least 2009.
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the temple compound served as a military encampment during the defence of Thalang against a Burmese invasion force in B.E. 2328 (1785) — the campaign remembered across the province through the two heroines Thao Thep Kasattri and Thao Sri Sunthon, whose names and legacy also appear elsewhere in Phuket's monument record.
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 Phuket’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.