The sandstone Khmer sanctuary west of Sakon Nakhon that the Fine Arts Department reads as late Baphuon work of the Mahidharapura dynasty, carrying a reclining Vishnu, a dancing Shiva and scenes from the Ramayana.
พระธาตุนารายณ์เจงเวง · Phra That Narai Cheng Weng
| Official name | พระธาตุนารายณ์เจงเวง — Phra That Narai Cheng Weng |
|---|---|
| Where | That Choeng Chum, Mueang Sakon Nakhon, Sakon Nakhon |
| 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. 99 (special issue) part 155, 21 October B.E. 2525 — determination of the land boundary of the national ancient monument. Earlier: the list of national ancient monuments at vol. 52, p. 3699, 8 March B.E. 2478. Both instruments were read from the Fine Arts Department's own register service on 26 September 2026. The register carries the monument at status 5 — registered with a determined land boundary — and the department's conservation drawings for it exist as a published project of its Office of Architecture. Note that the department's own address for this monument is Tambon That Choeng Chum, while the Tourism Authority places it at Tambon That Na Weng; the register's subdistrict is used here because the register is the registering authority. |
| Coordinates | 17.186909, 104.095553 Fine Arts Department national monument register, the department's own registered point for monument 0003381, read from its province service on 26 September 2026. It falls in Mueang Sakon Nakhon district, west-north-west of the city, consistent with the department's own description of the monument's position relative to the old town. |
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 dates the monument by style, not by an instrument or an inscription, and says so in the language of art history rather than of a document. That is the strongest dating anyone has for it, and it is still a stylistic attribution: no inscription from this monument was read for this page and no excavation report was found.
Phra That Narai Cheng Weng stands about six kilometres west-north-west of the centre of Sakon Nakhon, on the plain between the town and the foot of the Phu Phan range, inside the compound of the monastery that now takes its name. It is not a Buddhist monument in origin and the Fine Arts Department does not describe it as one. In its own published account of the Mahidharapura dynasty the department calls it a prasat in the Hindu Shaiva persuasion, in Khmer art of the late Baphuon period, and places it in roughly the late 16th to the early 17th Buddhist century. The building is sandstone; the name is a later Rattanakosin-era name and nothing read for this page establishes what the sanctuary was originally called.
What makes it more than one more ruined prang is the carving, and it is the department that says so. Its account names two specific images on the monument: Narayana reclining on the ocean — Vishnu Anantasayin, the god asleep on the serpent between world-ages — and Shiva Nataraja, the dancing Shiva. It also records scenes from the Ramayana. The department then draws the conclusion that matters: this iconographic programme belongs with the sanctuaries the Mahidharapura dynasty built, and it names Prasat Hin Phimai in Nakhon Ratchasima and Phanom Rung in Buriram as the comparisons. Those are two of the three or four most important Khmer monuments in Thailand. A sanctuary carved to the same programme, nearly three hundred kilometres north-east of them, is evidence of how far that dynasty's religious network reached.
The monument is also one of three in this province that the department has taken seriously enough to study architecturally. Its Office of Architecture has published a conservation project covering this prasat together with Phu Phek and Phra That Dum, compiled by the specialist architect Wasu Poshyanandana, comprising current-condition drawings, conjectural reconstruction drawings and restoration drawings. That the three were studied together is itself informative: the department treats them as one group with one problem, which is that all three are Khmer sanctuaries in a province whose religious identity is now entirely Buddhist and largely modern.
The legal history is straightforward and now fully citable. The monument appears in the Fine Arts Department's list of national ancient monuments published in the Royal Gazette at volume 52, page 3699, on 8 March B.E. 2478 — the same early list that carries Phra That Choeng Chum, Phra That Dum and Phu Phek. Its land boundary was determined by a later instrument at volume 99, special issue, part 155, on 21 October B.E. 2525. Both citations were read from the department's own register service rather than taken from a secondary account, which is the first time this guide has been able to say that for a whole province.
A single sandstone prang on a large laterite base, with the ornament cut into the face of the stone rather than applied — the form the Tourism Authority and the Fine Arts Department both describe.
The reclining Narayana: Vishnu Anantasayin, asleep on the serpent between world-ages, which the Fine Arts Department names on this monument specifically and illustrates in its own publication.
Shiva Nataraja, the dancing Shiva, the second image the department names here — the pairing of the two is what ties the monument to the Mahidharapura group.
Scenes from the Ramayana in relief, which the department records without cataloguing episode by episode.
The evidence of anastylosis: the monument stands re-erected rather than as found, and the department's Office of Architecture has published current-condition, conjectural and restoration drawings for it.
The modern Buddhist monastery around it, which is a different institution from the sanctuary and about eight hundred years younger.
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 | The sanctuary stands inside a working Buddhist monastery. Cover shoulders and knees, and treat the compound as a place of worship rather than an archaeological park. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | About six kilometres west-north-west of the centre of Sakon Nakhon on the plain towards Phu Phan, in Mueang Sakon Nakhon district. The Fine Arts Department's register gives the subdistrict as That Choeng Chum. |
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 in origin. The Fine Arts Department describes it as a prasat of the Hindu Shaiva persuasion in Khmer art of the late Baphuon period. A Buddhist monastery stands around it today and has given it the name it now carries.
The Fine Arts Department dates it by style to roughly the late 16th to the early 17th Buddhist century — the late eleventh to early twelfth century of the common era. That is a stylistic attribution by the department, not a date from an inscription.
The department names a reclining Narayana — Vishnu asleep on the serpent — and Shiva Nataraja, the dancing Shiva, together with scenes from the Ramayana.
Because that is the dynasty that built Phimai and Phanom Rung, and the department reads this sanctuary's carving as belonging with theirs. It places Sakon Nakhon inside the same religious network as the great Khmer monuments of the lower north-east.
No official source read for this page states one. Both the fee and the opening hours are left unconfirmed here rather than guessed.
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 Sakon Nakhon’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.