A single laterite sanctuary of the Bayon period at Ban Tham Chan in Prang Ku, carved with the Buddha and with a reference to the healing Buddha Bhaisajyaguru, inside a laterite enclosure with two ponds.
ปราสาททามจาน · Prasat Tham Chan
| Official name | ปราสาททามจาน — Prasat Tham Chan |
|---|---|
| Where | Samo, Prang Ku, Sisaket |
| 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 ราชกิจจานุเบกษา เล่มที่ ๕๒ ตอนที่ ๗๕, ๘ มีนาคม ๒๔๗๘ (registration), and เล่มที่ ๙๙ ตอนที่ ๑๓๐, ๑๔ กันยายน ๒๕๒๕ (determination of the monument land boundary) Both citations are as published by the ONEP cultural-environment register. The 2525 announcement is independently corroborated to this extent: the Royal Gazette's own document service indexes a document at that volume and part whose text announces the registration of โบราณสถานวัดปราสาททามจาน ตำบลสมอ อำเภอปรางค์กู่ under the Ancient Monuments Act B.E. 2504. The PDF itself could not be opened by this run, so the land area it determines is not printed here. The ตอนที่ ๗๕ against ตอนที่ ๒๕ conflict described on the Prasat Sa Kamphaeng Yai page applies to the 2478 date here too. |
| Coordinates | 14.816938, 104.109847 ONEP cultural-environment register, site 5479, whose own address line places the monument at Moo 2, Ban Tham Chan, Tambon Samo, Prang Ku — checked against that district before printing and falling inside its eastern part, not at the district or provincial centre |
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 18th Buddhist century dating and the Bayon attribution both rest on style, and the hospital-chapel reading rests on iconography. Neither is a dated instrument. There is no founding year on this page.
Prasat Tham Chan stands at Moo 2, Ban Tham Chan, in Tambon Samo, Prang Ku district, in the south-west of Sisaket province. It is known by three names and the reader will meet all of them: Prasat Tham Chan, Prasat Ban Tham Chan, and Prasat Ban Samo after the subdistrict.
The ONEP cultural-environment register describes a single laterite sanctuary on a rectangular plan facing east, set within a laterite enclosing wall with a gopura on the eastern side, and two water tanks outside it to the north-east and the east. The dating is around the 18th Buddhist century and the manner is Khmer art of the Bayon style — the idiom of Jayavarman VII's reign.
What the carving shows matters more here than the plan. The register records figures of the Buddha and attendant figures, and a reference to Bhaisajyaguru, the Buddha of healing. Together with the layout that is why the register raises the possibility that this was an arogayasala, a hospital chapel of the same network Prasat Sa Kamphaeng Noi is read as belonging to. Two of the six monuments in this file are read that way, which says something about how thoroughly that one reign reorganised the religious architecture of this frontier.
The monument is protected by two Royal Gazette instruments according to the register — the general registration of 2478 and a boundary determination of 14 September 2525. The gazette's own document service indexes a document at that volume and part announcing the registration of the ancient monument of Wat Prasat Tham Chan in Tambon Samo, Prang Ku, under the Ancient Monuments Act B.E. 2504, which corroborates the citation even though the document itself would not open for this run.
One caution belongs on this page, and it is a warning about this guide's own material rather than about a state source. Another BAANLYY page states that the sanctuary on the Sisaket provincial seal is Prasat Hin Ban Samo. That may be right, but BAANLYY is not an independent source for a BAANLYY claim, and no state source read for this page establishes which monument the provincial seal depicts. It is therefore listed below as an open question rather than stated here as a fact.
A single laterite sanctuary on a rectangular plan, facing east.
Carved figures of the Buddha and attendants, and a reference in the carving to Bhaisajyaguru, the healing Buddha.
The laterite enclosing wall and its eastern gopura.
Two water tanks outside the enclosure, to the north-east and to the east — the pond positions associated with a Khmer hospital chapel.
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 | Moo 2, Ban Tham Chan, Tambon Samo, Prang Ku district, in the south-west of the province. Prang Ku town is the district centre; the monument is in its eastern part, towards Huai Thap Than. |
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, and this is the commonest confusion in the district. Prasat Prang Ku — also called Prasat Ban Ku — is a three-tower brick sanctuary at Ban Ku in Tambon Ku, and the district takes its name from it. Prasat Tham Chan is a single laterite sanctuary at Ban Tham Chan in Tambon Samo, several kilometres away. Both are in Prang Ku district and they are different buildings.
Because of what is carved on it and how it is laid out. The ONEP cultural-environment register records figures of the Buddha and attendants and a reference to Bhaisajyaguru, the Buddha of healing, and describes a single sanctuary inside a walled enclosure with an eastern gateway and ponds outside the north-east and east — the standard arrangement of an arogayasala, the hospital chapels founded in the reign of Jayavarman VII. That is a reading from the building itself. No inscription recovered here was read for this page.
Buddhist, on the evidence the register describes — Buddha figures, attendant figures and a reference to the healing Buddha, in the Bayon manner of the late 12th and early 13th centuries CE, when the Khmer court was Mahayana Buddhist. That distinguishes it from the older Hindu sanctuaries elsewhere in this province, such as Prasat Ban Prasat at Huai Thap Than.
Around the 18th Buddhist century on the state register's stylistic dating, which corresponds to roughly the turn of the 13th century CE. That is a stylistic attribution and not a dated instrument, and this page gives no founding year. Where a stone inscription, a Royal Gazette entry or an excavation report later fixes one, this page will say so and name it; until then the stylistic range is the whole of what it will state.
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.
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.