Wat Khot Thim Tharam

What the official record says

Where Wat Khot Thim Tharam 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 department's own text then adds, in its own words, that nobody knows what evidence the second date rests on. Nor do the accounts cohere: Naresuan's reign began in B.E. 2133, and B.E. 2007 falls in the middle of the Ayutthaya period rather than at its end. No founding year is stated on this page.

The history of Wat Khot Thim Tharam

Wat Khot takes its everyday name from the ground it stands on: a khot, a sand bank, on the edge of the Rayong river. The longer name is harder to pin down. The Fine Arts Department register lists it under several spellings and reports that it is said to carry the personal name of a governor of Rayong called Thim who is held to have built it. Local usage simply shortens all of it to Wat Khot.

Its date is the interesting problem, and it is interesting because of how a state file handles not knowing. The department's own history block says the monastery is told to have been built around the late Ayutthaya period, about B.E. 2007. It then reports that an elderly monk said the Fine Arts Department itself had dated it to B.E. 2113, in the reign of Naresuan, a year after the first fall of Ayutthaya. And then, without being asked to, the text adds that nobody knows what evidence that second figure rests on. That sentence is the most valuable thing in the file. It is also not the end of the trouble: Naresuan came to the throne in B.E. 2133, so a B.E. 2113 date cannot sit in his reign, and B.E. 2007 is mid-Ayutthaya rather than late. Three claims, none of which survives contact with the other two. This page states no founding year, and that is the accurate outcome rather than a gap in it.

What can be dated is the registration and what it protects. On 20 May B.E. 2541 the department registered the monastery under section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act B.E. 2504 and drew a boundary of 4 rai 49.88 square wa around it — item 7 of a five-province announcement, read here off the department's own scan and matching the register exactly. The custodian named in the file is the monastery itself.

The building the boundary is drawn around rewards a slow look. The old ordination hall is masonry in the plain hall form, rectangular, originally roofed in overlapping round-tailed tile, with stucco lamyong and a stucco gable of creeper design set with glazed animal figurines in Chinese taste — the eastern seaboard's trading history showing up in the plasterwork. A porch bay was added later and the roof has since been redone in corrugated tile. Inside is a principal image in the Mara-vijaya posture and wall paintings by a village hand, badly faded, showing the Ten Jataka, kinnari, and scenes of ordinary life at the time they were made. A low wall rings the hall with corner chedis of the twelve-indented form, their finials gone. The department also records something easy to miss: the monastery keeps seven old khoi-paper manuscripts with line drawings of monks, women, yaksha and monkeys in Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin hands.

What you actually see

The old ordination hall: masonry, rectangular, in the plain hall form, with a timber roof structure that was originally covered in overlapping round-tailed tile and has since been redone in corrugated sheet tile.

Its stucco gable, worked in a creeper design and set with glazed animal figurines in Chinese taste — the trading coast showing up in the plasterwork rather than in any document.

The mural of the Mara-vijaya episode at the front of the hall, and inside, a faded folk-hand cycle of the Ten Jataka together with kinnari and scenes of everyday life of its own time.

The low surrounding wall with corner chedis of the twelve-indented type, their upper finials lost, enclosing the registered ground of 4 rai 49.88 square wa.

The seven old khoi-paper manuscripts the department records the monastery as keeping, with line drawings of monks, women, yaksha and monkeys in Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin hands.

Five window bays on each side of the hall, with timber door and window leaves, and the later-added porch bay at the front.

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 founding date, which the department's own file reports twice and disowns once. Nothing consulted in this run settles it.
• Whether the governor of Rayong named Thim existed and built the monastery, which the register carries as something said rather than as a record.
• When the murals were painted and whether any conservation record exists for them. The department describes them as very badly faded and names no campaign.
• The contents and dates of the seven khoi manuscripts, which the register mentions in a single sentence and does not cataloge.
• The opening hours, which no official source consulted publishes for this monastery.

Wat Khot Thim Tharam: 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 Rayong’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.