Prasat Ban Prasat, Huai Thap Than

Three brick sanctuaries on one shared base inside a village temple in Huai Thap Than, within a laterite enclosure — a Hindu foundation of the 16th to 17th Buddhist centuries that the village still honours as a reliquary.

ปราสาทบ้านปราสาท (ห้วยทับทัน) · Prasat Ban Prasat

The record

What the official record says

Official name	ปราสาทบ้านปราสาท (ห้วยทับทัน) — Prasat Ban Prasat
Where	Prasat, Huai Thap Than, Sisaket
Royal temple class	Not established from an official register.
Monastic order	Not recorded in any register we could read.
Ancient monument	Not established.

Map

Where Prasat Ban Prasat is

Prasat, Huai Thap Than, Sisaket

The exact location has not been confirmed yet.

Founding

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.

What the record showsThe Fine Arts Department's Regional Office 10 in Nakhon Ratchasima publishes a record for this monument describing it as three sanctuaries built around the 16th to 17th Buddhist centuries. The Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration describes it as an ancient Khmer sanctuary of around the 16th Buddhist century, built as a shrine to a Hindu deity. No gazette instrument and no register id for it was opened by this run.

What tradition holdsThe community holds an annual observance at the monument on the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the third lunar month, described by the tourism administration as a tradition of paying respect to the that — the reliquary — of Ban Prasat. The alternative village name ปราสาทบ้านโนนธาตุ, the sanctuary on the reliquary mound, belongs to the same tradition.

There is no founding year on this page. Two state bodies give a two-century window in Buddhist centuries and neither converts it to a year, and this page does not do the conversion for them. Popular accounts additionally describe a later Lan Xang-period reworking of the towers; no state source read here states that, so it is not asserted.

History

The history of Prasat Ban Prasat

Prasat Ban Prasat stands at Ban Prasat in Tambon Prasat, Huai Thap Than district, in the north-west of Sisaket province. It sits inside a temple compound, and the sources disagree about which temple: the Ministry of Tourism and Sports directory and the tourism administration both name it as Wat Prasat Phanaram, while the Fine Arts Department's own Regional Office 10 heads its record with Wat Ban Prasat. Both are printed here because this run could not determine which is current.

The building is three brick sanctuaries in a row on a north-south axis, standing on one shared stone base and facing east, within a laterite enclosing wall with gateways on the southern and eastern sides. The Fine Arts Department describes the group as built around the 16th to 17th Buddhist centuries. The tourism administration adds the purpose: a shrine raised for a Hindu deity, in a Khmer architectural idiom the account associates with the Khleang-Prasat manner.

What separates this monument from the two Kamphaeng sanctuaries is its afterlife in the village rather than in the register. The community calls it the sanctuary on the reliquary mound and holds an annual observance at it on the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the third lunar month — the full moon of Magha, one of the most significant days in the Theravada calendar. A Hindu sanctuary of the Angkorian centuries that a Thai-Lao village now honours as a reliquary on a Buddhist holy day is a compressed version of the whole religious history of this province.

It is the least documented of the six monuments on these pages, and this page is shorter for that reason rather than padded to match the others. The Fine Arts Department holds records for it that the run writing this could not open.

On site

What you actually see

Three brick sanctuaries in a north-south row on a single shared base, facing east.

The laterite enclosing wall, with gateways on the southern and eastern sides.

The village temple compound the group stands in — named as Wat Prasat Phanaram by two state sources and as Wat Ban Prasat by a third.

The setting: flat rice country in the north-west of the province, off Highway 226 between Sisaket and Surin.

Visiting

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.

Hours	Not established from an official source.
Admission	Not established from an official source.
Dress	Not established from an official source.
Photography	No source we found states a rule, so we print none.
Getting there	Tambon Prasat, Huai Thap Than district. The tourism administration's directions from Sisaket town are Highway 226 for about 39 km, then right into Huai Thap Than district and 8 km further. Huai Thap Than has a station on the Northeastern Line. The contact number the same source publishes is 0 4451 4447.

Before you rely on the figures aboveThis monument has no map or directions link on this page, because no source that identifies it gives a coordinate. The district and subdistrict above are what the record does carry, and the exact location is not yet confirmed. An annual observance is held at the monument on the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the third lunar month.

Open

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 COORDINATE, AND THIS MONUMENT SHIPS WITH NO MAP BECAUSE OF IT. No source read for this page gives a latitude and longitude that identifies this monument. The ONEP cultural-environment register, which supplied the coordinate for every other entry in this province file, has no entry for it that this run could find. The Fine Arts Department register was unreachable. A coordinate was NOT taken from a name search, and the district centre was NOT substituted, because there are at least four monuments in Isan called ปราสาทบ้านปราสาท — see the next item — and a pin a kilometre out on the wrong one is worse than no pin.
THE NAME IS A COLLISION AND THIS IS THE WARNING. A Royal Gazette announcement of 21 September 2541 determines the boundary of โบราณสถานปราสาทบ้านปราสาท at Ban Prasat, TAMBON HIN DAT, AMPHOE DAN KHUN THOT, NAKHON RATCHASIMA — a different monument in a different province. There is a further ปราสาทบ้านปราสาท at Non Sung in the same province, described as an arogayasala. There is a ปราสาทบ้านปราสาท, also called ปราสาทกังเอน, in Surin. None of them is this one, and gazette entries, land areas and photographs are routinely swapped between them.
Which temple the monument stands in: Wat Prasat Phanaram or Wat Ban Prasat. Two state sources say the first, the Fine Arts Department's regional office says the second.
Any registration citation at all. The monument is described by the Fine Arts Department, which implies the register carries it, but no gazette volume, part, date or land area was read by this run and ancientMonument is therefore null rather than guessed. Null here means unreached, not absent.
Whether the towers were reworked in a later Lan Xang phase. Popular accounts say so and describe the group as a sanctuary of two eras; no state source read here supports it, so this page does not state it.
Opening hours and admission. Neither state source carries either field.

FAQ

Prasat Ban Prasat: common questions

Why does this page have no map when the others do?

Because no source consulted for it gives a coordinate that identifies this monument, and the alternative would be guessing. There are at least four monuments in north-eastern Thailand called Prasat Ban Prasat — including one at Dan Khun Thot and one at Non Sung in Nakhon Ratchasima, and one in Surin — so a coordinate matched on name alone stands a real chance of being the wrong building in another province. The district and subdistrict on this page are what the record does establish. Finding the coordinate is the first job named for a second Sisaket run.

Which temple is it inside?

State sources disagree. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports directory and the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration both name Wat Prasat Phanaram. The Fine Arts Department's Regional Office 10 heads its own record with Wat Ban Prasat. Both names are given here and neither is presented as settled.

Was it built as a Buddhist temple?

No. The Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration describes it as built as a shrine for a Hindu deity, around the 16th Buddhist century, in the Khmer architectural tradition. What is Buddhist is its present use: the village honours it as a reliquary and holds an annual observance there on the full moon of the third lunar month.

How old is it exactly?

No source read for this page gives a year, and this page does not invent one. The Fine Arts Department describes the three sanctuaries as built around the 16th to 17th Buddhist centuries; the tourism administration says around the 16th. That is a window of roughly two hundred years expressed in a different calendar, and it is as precise as the record consulted here goes.

Nearby

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 Sisaket’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.

Sources & References

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.