Wat Khongkharam

What the official record says

Where Wat Khongkharam is

When was it founded — and what actually establishes that?

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 seven governors are named in full on the department's page, which is unusual and useful: Phra Saming Singhaburin of Mueang Sing, Phra Ninna Phuminabodi of Lum Sum, Phra Chintithabodi of Tha Takua, Phra Nikhrothaphiyok of Sai Yok, Phra Panatsatithabodi of Tha Khanun, Phra Selaphumibodi of Thong Pha Phum and Phra Phonlakatithabodi of Tha Kradan. Every one of those places is in Kanchanaburi today.

The history of Wat Khongkharam

The Mon came down the Mae Klong in numbers in the eighteenth century, and this is where their leaders put the center of their religious life. The Fine Arts Department tells it plainly: the monastery is held to have been set up in the Thon Buri period by the governors of seven Mon towns, who had crossed with their families and settled along the river, and who restored the place to serve as the center for monks of the Raman order. It names all seven governors and all seven towns. In Mon the monastery is called Phia To, which means Wat Klang, the central monastery — and that is the name a document of B.E. 2394 still uses, which is the one properly dated fact in the early part of this story.

It rose. Late in the reign of Rama II, Phraya Mahayotha — Cheng Khotchaseni, a Thai noble of Mon descent — invited Phra Khru Ramanyathibodi, a senior monk of the Raman order, to be abbot here. Under Rama IV the monastery reached its height. Chao Chom Manda Klin, a consort of that reign, took it under her patronage and offered it to the king as a royal monastery, and the king gave it the name it now has. The Fine Arts Department prints that sequence in Thai on its own page; the English translation directly beside it says the name was given by Rama VI, which is a slip in a state source and is flagged here rather than quietly smoothed over.

The ordination hall is why art historians come. Its murals were painted by Bangkok-school craftsmen late in the reign of Rama III, and the subjects are the ones a Mon congregation would expect: the Buddhas of the past, an assembly of devas, scenes from the life of the Buddha and the last ten Jataka stories. The past-Buddha cycle is the giveaway. The department elsewhere notes that painted rows of the twenty-eight past Buddhas are a Mon signature, and names this monastery alongside Wat Chomphuwek in Nonthaburi and Wat Sai Arirak a few kilometers away as the places to see it.

Around the hall stand seven chedi in the Mon manner, one for each of the seven towns, which is the kind of architectural arithmetic that only makes sense once somebody tells you the history. The registration follows the buildings rather than the perimeter: three separate parcels of ground, the ordination hall, the north khana and the south khana, each with its own area. And the nine-room kuti, a teak Thai-style house with carved window shutters, was restored in B.E. 2542 to hold the monastery folk museum, with five more kuti restored afterwards to take the overflow.

What you actually see

The ordination hall and its murals: past Buddhas, an assembly of devas, scenes from the life of the Buddha and the last ten Jataka stories, painted by Bangkok craftsmen late in the reign of Rama III.

A sandstone Buddha image inside the hall, thickened over with stucco, which the register lists among the monument's principal contents along with the gable and the doorway arches.

Seven chedi in the Mon manner ranged around the ordination hall, which the department reads as standing for the seven Mon towns whose governors are named in its own account.

The hamsa pillar, with its bronze bird — the Mon standard, and the single clearest sign on the ground of whose monastery this is.

Two large teak houses in Thai form: the seven-room kuti and the nine-room kuti, with carved window shutters in the prachamyam pattern. The department calls them exceptionally large for their kind.

The folk museum in the nine-room kuti, showing objects of Mon life along the Mae Klong valley together with the monastery's own religious pieces, and the gateway arch to the group of kuti behind it.

Visiting: hours, admission, dress and photography

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.

What we could not establish

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.

• The royal grade. The department records that Rama IV made this a royal monastery, but no grade or sub-rank for it could be read from the National Office of Buddhism register, so royalClass here is null. Do not fill it from Wat Khongkharam Worawihan in Phetchaburi, which is a second-class royal monastery and a different place.
• Which date is right for the registration. The department's regional office says 21 July B.E. 2518; the Royal Gazette scan it is describing is headed 15 July.
• Whether the name was given by Rama IV or Rama VI. The Thai text of the department's page says Rama IV and the English translation on the same page says Rama VI.
• Whether the monastery buildings outside the three registered parcels carry any protection of their own. The instrument lists three areas and no more.

Wat Khongkharam: common questions

Where to go from here

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 Ratchaburi’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.