Three brick prangs on a single sandstone platform on the Thung Kula Ronghai plain, the largest and most complete Khmer-culture group in Roi Et.
กู่กาสิงห์ · Ku Kasing
| Official name | กู่กาสิงห์ — Ku Kasing |
|---|---|
| Where | Ku Kasing, Kaset Wisai, Roi Et |
| 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. 52, p. 3696, 8 March B.E. 2478 (1935); land boundary at vol. 116, special part 17 ง, 17 March B.E. 2542 (1999), about 12 rai 2 ngan 30.56 square wa The Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre's archaeological database and the Fine Arts Department's own article give the same two instruments in the same form. Neither quotes a Fine Arts Department monument number for the site, so registerId is null rather than guessed. |
| Coordinates | 15.576536, 103.676042 Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, archaeological sites database entry 392 (พิกัด DD 15.576536 N, 103.676042 E), checked against the registered address in Tambon Ku Kasing, Amphoe Kaset Wisai. |
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.
No founding date, founder or dedication inscription is on record for this monument. The Fine Arts Department's account has the sanctuary still in use through the 17th and 18th Buddhist centuries as the community moved from Shaivism towards Mahayana Buddhism, so the building and its use are dated separately here.
Ku Kasing stands in the grounds of Wat Burapha Ku Kasing, in the village that takes its name from it, in the southern rice districts of Roi Et. The Fine Arts Department describes a rectangular layout of roughly 35 by 50 metres: three brick prangs raised on one sandstone platform in a north-south line and facing east, the central tower larger than the two beside it and joined to a mandapa, with a stair on the east front only and false doors on the other three sides. Two bannalai, the small library buildings, occupy the north-east and south-east corners of the platform and face back towards the towers. A boundary wall with an opening on each of its four sides encloses the whole, and a horseshoe-shaped moat runs outside that.
What came out of the ground settles the dedication. The department's account of the excavation here names a Ganesha figure, Shiva lingas, gold leaf worked in eight petals and naga ornament, and the provincial Public Relations Department's account makes the same point: it is the lingas that tie the sanctuary to Shiva. The sandstone bases still carry lotus-petal and bird motifs, and a relief of Indra riding the elephant Airavata survives on the site. The dating is architectural. The Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre reads the building as Baphuon-period work of the late 16th Buddhist century, and the Fine Arts Department's own article carries the community forward through the 17th and 18th Buddhist centuries, from Shaivism towards Mahayana Buddhism. Neither body offers a year, because no inscription here gives one.
The monument has been studied twice in living memory, and the second reading corrected the first. The Sirindhorn centre's research list credits Subhadradis Diskul with an art-historical study in B.E. 2510, then the Fine Arts Department with clearing and restoration across B.E. 2534 and 2535, with Wannawipha Sunetta named for the same two seasons. That work overturned a long-standing description of the site: the three sanctuaries had been thought to be joined by galleries, and the excavation showed that they are not. Restoration since has been run by the department's regional office, and the village has been built up around the monument as a community-tourism destination, which is the form in which most Thai visitors now meet it.
It is also worth knowing that Ku Kasing is not alone. Ban Ku Kasing carries three registered monuments within half a kilometre of each other: this one, the arogayasala-plan Ku Phon Rakhang about 400 metres to the north-east, and Ku Phon Wit about 500 metres to the north, each registered under its own instrument. The three are normally seen in one visit, and together they are the clearest surviving picture in Roi Et of what a Khmer-culture settlement on this plain actually consisted of.
Three brick prangs on one sandstone platform, in a north-south line facing east, the central tower larger than the two flanking it and joined to a mandapa. The Fine Arts Department gives the layout as roughly 35 by 50 metres.
A stair on the east front only. The central tower's other three faces carry false doors, which is the ordinary Khmer solution and is the thing to look for if the single entrance seems odd.
Two bannalai — library buildings — at the north-east and south-east corners of the platform, both turned back to face the towers.
Carved lotus-petal and bird motifs surviving on the sandstone bases, and a relief of Indra riding the elephant Airavata.
The enclosing wall with an opening on each of its four sides, and the horseshoe-shaped outer moat, which reads most clearly from the north-east.
What is missing: the pair of lion figures the village says stood at the entrance and gave the monument the singh in its name. The Fine Arts Department's account has them gone since about B.E. 2503.
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 every day, per the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre's record for the site. No state source consulted publishes opening or closing times. |
|---|---|
| Admission | Thai nationals: free. Foreign visitors: 0 baht. |
| Dress | No dress rule is published for the monument. It stands inside a working temple compound, where the ordinary Thai convention applies: shoulders and knees covered, and shoes off inside any hall. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | In Ban Ku Kasing, Tambon Ku Kasing, Kaset Wisai district, out on the Thung Kula Ronghai plain in the south-west of the province. Reaching it needs a vehicle. |
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.
No. The Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre's record states that the monument may be visited every day without an entrance fee, and no state source gives a separate rate for foreign visitors.
No state source gives a construction date, because none is recorded. The Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre dates the architecture to the late 16th Buddhist century on Baphuon-period style, and the Fine Arts Department has the site still in use two centuries later. Anything more precise than that is somebody's guess rather than a record.
It was raised as a Hindu sanctuary. Shiva lingas and a Ganesha figure came out of the ground here, and the Fine Arts Department reads the later phase as a move towards Mahayana Buddhism. It now stands inside the grounds of a working Buddhist temple, Wat Burapha Ku Kasing, which is a separate fact about the site today rather than about what it was built as.
Two more registered monuments. Ku Phon Rakhang, a hospital-chapel plan about 400 metres to the north-east, and Ku Phon Wit about 500 metres north, which the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre records as registered in B.E. 2544.
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 Roi Et’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.