The chedi standing in the mouth of the Chao Phraya that Samut Prakan puts on its own provincial arms, begun in the Second Reign and rebuilt into its present bell shape in the Fourth.
วัดพระสมุทรเจดีย์ · Wat Phra Samut Chedi
| Official name | วัดพระสมุทรเจดีย์ — Wat Phra Samut Chedi |
|---|---|
| Where | Pak Khlong Bang Pla Kot, Phra Samut Chedi, Samut Prakan |
| 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, part 75, 8 March B.E. 2478 (1935); a second announcement at vol. 110, part 186, 12 November B.E. 2536 (1993) Both citations are given by the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre's archaeological database entry for the monastery. Neither the Fine Arts Department register nor the gazette itself was reached this run, so no departmental monument number is recorded and registerId is null rather than guessed. ONEP's own entry for the same monument carries no gazette citation at all. |
| Coordinates | 13.600301, 100.586829 Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, archaeological sites database, entry 45 — the entry that also carries the street address; ONEP differs by about 300 m, see open questions |
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 two state bodies that publish a coordinate for this monument do not agree. The Sirindhorn centre and ONEP place it about three hundred metres apart, and this page uses the Sirindhorn figure because that entry also carries the street address it belongs to.
Phra Samut Chedi stands on the right bank of the Chao Phraya at Pak Khlong Bang Pla Kot, across the water from the provincial town at Pak Nam. The Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre's archaeological database gives its address as 114 Mu 3, Ban Chedi, on Thanon Suksawat, and records the monastery under two further names — wat chedi klang nam and phra chedi klang nam, the chedi in the middle of the water. That is how the province has always spoken of it, and it describes a site that no longer exists in that form: the chedi was raised on ground in the river mouth and the water around it has since closed up, so what was reached by boat is now walked to. ONEP's cultural-environment entry notes only that the ground around the chedi has been filled and levelled repeatedly against flooding; no official source read for this page dates the change.
The chedi belongs to the same nineteenth-century programme as the forts either side of it. The Sirindhorn database records the work as begun in the Second Reign and completed in B.E. 2371 (1828), which falls in the Third. That much is the documented sequence. What a visitor sees, however, is later: the database records a substantial rebuilding in the Fourth Reign, in which a bell-shaped stupa was raised over the original octagonal one about B.E. 2404, with the octagonal base kept beneath it and further structures added in the Fifth Reign. The 1828 chedi is inside the present one rather than in front of the visitor, and that distinction matters more here than at most monuments, because almost every popular account collapses the two.
The monument is registered twice. The Sirindhorn entry gives an announcement in the Royal Gazette at volume 52, part 75, dated 8 March B.E. 2478 (1935) — the same nationwide instrument that carried hundreds of monuments across Isan and the central plain, and the one whose date this guide has spent four provinces trying to settle — and a second announcement at volume 110, part 186, of 12 November B.E. 2536 (1993). Neither the department's own register nor the gazette volumes themselves answered this run, so no monument number is recorded here and the citations are carried as the Sirindhorn centre gives them.
It is also a working pilgrimage site rather than a ruin. The Sirindhorn entry records that the chedi may be visited and venerated daily from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon at no charge, and that the annual observance at the chedi — ngan namatsakan ong phra samut chedi — is the province's own yearly festival, held from the fifth waning day of the eleventh lunar month. The same entry calls the chedi the symbol of Samut Prakan province, which is not a tourism flourish: it is the device on the provincial arms and the first line of the provincial motto.
The bell-shaped stupa of the Fourth Reign standing on the octagonal base of the earlier chedi — a rebuilding rather than a restoration, with the original enclosed inside it.
The enclosing wall, which the Sirindhorn database describes as faced with brown-glazed Chinese roof tiles, and the elephant motifs worked into the structure.
Two levels of circumambulation terrace, with subsidiary chedis set at the cardinal points.
The vihara on the seaward side, facing down the river mouth rather than inland.
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 | Daily, 07:00–16:00 |
|---|---|
| Admission | Thai nationals: free. Foreign visitors: 0 baht. |
| Dress | A working monastery and an active pilgrimage site. Covered shoulders and knees are the ordinary expectation at any Thai wat; no dress rule specific to this monastery was published by any official source read for this page. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | At 114 Mu 3, Ban Chedi, on Thanon Suksawat in Pak Khlong Bang Pla Kot subdistrict, Phra Samut Chedi district, on the right bank of the Chao Phraya opposite the provincial town at Pak Nam. |
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 archaeological database states that the chedi may be visited and venerated every day from 07:00 to 16:00 without an entrance fee, and publishes no separate rate for foreign visitors.
Not in the form you see. The Sirindhorn database records that the present bell-shaped stupa is Fourth Reign work of about B.E. 2404, raised over the earlier octagonal chedi on its octagonal base, with further additions in the Fifth Reign. The earlier structure is inside the later one.
Because it was raised on ground standing out in the mouth of the Chao Phraya, and the Sirindhorn database still records the names wat chedi klang nam and phra chedi klang nam. It is on the bank today. No official source read for this page dates when the water around it closed, and ONEP records only that the ground has been filled and levelled several times against flooding.
Yes, and twice. The Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre cites a Royal Gazette announcement at volume 52, part 75, of 8 March B.E. 2478 (1935) and a second at volume 110, part 186, of 12 November B.E. 2536 (1993). The Fine Arts Department's own register was not reachable this run, so no monument number is given here.
The Sirindhorn entry records the yearly observance at the chedi as beginning on the fifth waning day of the eleventh lunar month, and describes it as the annual festival of Samut Prakan province rather than of the monastery alone.
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 Samut Prakan’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.