The province town's royal monastery, a third-class royal temple of the Maha Nikaya on Khukhan Road, built around the image called Luang Pho To — 6.80 metres tall, in the Lan Xang manner.
วัดมหาพุทธาราม · Wat Maha Phuttharam
| Official name | วัดมหาพุทธาราม — Wat Maha Phuttharam |
|---|---|
| Where | Mueang Nuea, Mueang Sisaket, Sisaket |
| Royal temple class | Third class royal temple (พระอารามหลวง ชั้นตรี) National Office of Buddhism, Sisaket provincial office, entry 49239, which states พระอารามหลวง ชั้นตรี and names no sub-rank. The Thai was read verbatim rather than through a summary, per the rule adopted after the Songkhla run found a summarising fetch promoting a third-class grade to first class. |
| Monastic order | คณะสงฆ์มหานิกาย (Maha Nikaya) |
| Ancient monument | Not established. |
| Coordinates | 15.117619, 104.328782 ONEP cultural-environment register, site 5460, whose own address line places the temple on Khukhan Road in Mueang Sisaket — checked against that district before printing, and checked in particular against the coordinate of the provincial hall, which it is close to but not identical with, after the Buriram run found a provincial-capital default sitting in this register's coordinate field for a monument forty kilometres away |
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 conflict is real and unresolved. It is not only the year: the National Office of Buddhism places the temple in Tambon Mueang Nuea and the ONEP register places it in Tambon Mueang Tai. Both bodies are describing the same temple on Khukhan Road in Mueang Sisaket. This page follows the register of wats for the subdistrict and the founding year, because that is the body whose register the question belongs to, and records the other reading here rather than hiding it.
Wat Maha Phuttharam stands on Khukhan Road in Mueang Sisaket, at the centre of the province town, and is the temple the province is named for in its own motto. Most people call it Wat Phra To, the temple of the great Buddha, and the older name Wat Pa Daeng — the red forest temple — is still current.
It is a royal monastery. The Sisaket provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism records it as พระอารามหลวง ชั้นตรี, a third-class royal temple, of the Maha Nikaya, with no sub-rank stated. That grade is an official fact and one of the more useful things on this page, because it tells a reader where this temple sits relative to every other temple in the province: it is the only one in the province that this guide has so far established as a royal monastery at all.
The reason it exists is the image. The ONEP cultural-environment register describes Luang Pho To as a Buddha image 6.80 metres tall, made in the Lan Xang manner — the artistic tradition of the Lao kingdoms up the Mekong, which is the cultural inheritance of much of this part of Isan and not the Central Thai one. Around it the temple carries mural painting of the Buddhist teachings and the cosmological realms.
The register's own account of how it began is a founding narrative rather than a dated instrument, and the page treats it as one. It recounts that the second governor of Sisaket, Phra Wiset Phakdi — Thao Chom — moved the seat of the town; that an image called Luang Pho To was found in the forest; and that the governor sponsored a temple on the spot where it was found, which became the town's companion temple. Wat Pa Daeng, the red forest temple, is what the place where an image was found in the woods would naturally be called.
Two state bodies date the founding differently — B.E. 2395 in the register of wats, B.E. 2328 in the cultural-environment register — and they place it in different subdistricts. This page says so instead of choosing quietly. A temple at the centre of a provincial capital whose founding year two arms of the state write sixty-seven years apart is a better illustration of how Thai institutional records actually behave than any amount of confident prose.
Luang Pho To, a Buddha image the ONEP register gives as 6.80 metres tall, made in the Lan Xang manner rather than a Central Thai one.
Mural painting inside the hall, depicting the teachings and the cosmological realms.
A large working monastery in the middle of a provincial capital, with the provincial administration, the markets and the railway station within a walk.
The status the register gives it: a third-class royal monastery of the Maha Nikaya, the only one so far established as such in this province by this guide.
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 | Khukhan Road, Mueang Sisaket, in the centre of the province town — a short walk from the provincial administration, the markets and the railway station. The National Office of Buddhism's register gives the address as Ban Pa Daeng, Khukhan Road, Tambon Mueang Nuea. |
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.
Royal monasteries in Thailand are graded first, second or third class, with sub-ranks below that, and the grade is recorded in the register kept by the National Office of Buddhism. Its Sisaket provincial office records this temple as พระอารามหลวง ชั้นตรี — third class — of the Maha Nikaya, and names no sub-rank. The grade tells a reader that the temple has a recognised standing in the national ordering of monasteries, which most temples do not.
Two state bodies disagree and this page will not pick between them. The National Office of Buddhism's provincial register records the temple as established in B.E. 2395 and as receiving its royal ordination-boundary grant in B.E. 2465. The ONEP cultural-environment register says it was built in B.E. 2328 under its earlier name, Wat Pa Daeng. The gap is sixty-seven years. Neither record cites the other and no instrument settling it was read for this page.
The Buddha image the temple is built around and the reason most people come. The ONEP cultural-environment register gives it as 6.80 metres tall and describes it as made in the Lan Xang manner — the artistic tradition of the Lao kingdoms rather than the Central Thai one, which is the cultural inheritance of much of this part of Isan. The register's own history of the temple recounts that the image was found in the forest and that the temple was built where it was found; that is the register's narrative account and is given here as tradition.
No, it is the same one. Wat Phra To — the temple of the great Buddha — is what almost everyone in Sisaket calls it, after Luang Pho To. Wat Pa Daeng is its older name. Wat Maha Phuttharam is the name in the register of wats and the one used 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.
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.