The principal temple of Songkhla old town, with a Thai-Chinese ordination hall whose murals paint the harbour and its shipping, a hermit hall of forty medical ascetics dated 1863, and a national museum on its own grounds.
วัดมัชฌิมาวาสวรวิหาร · Wat Matchimawat Worawihan
| Official name | วัดมัชฌิมาวาสวรวิหาร — Wat Matchimawat Worawihan |
|---|---|
| Where | Bo Yang, Mueang Songkhla, Songkhla |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Not established. |
| Coordinates | 7.194850, 100.592308 ONEP cultural-environment register, site 4801 |
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.
Two further dates circulate and both come from the same university library account rather than from an instrument: that Prince Vajirananavarorasa gave the temple its Pali name on a visit in B.E. 2431 (1888), and that Rama VI raised it to royal-monastery status in B.E. 2460 (1917). Neither could be matched to a Royal Gazette entry for this page, and there is a wrinkle worth naming: the ordination hall is described as early Rattanakosin work and its hermit-hall mural cycle is dated to B.E. 2406 (1863), so the buildings comfortably predate the renaming that is supposed to have given the temple its name.
Wat Matchimawat sits on Saiburi Road in Bo Yang, the sand bar of old Songkhla town between the lake and the sea, and it is the temple the town measures itself by. Everybody calls it Wat Klang, the middle temple, and that nickname is older than the formal name above the gate. Tradition — told by the temple, repeated by the Prince of Songkla University library's account of it and carried in the narrative field of the ONEP cultural-environment register — has it that a wealthy local woman remembered as Yai Si Chan paid for the first temple on the site in the late Ayutthaya period, roughly four centuries ago, and that it was known as Wat Yai Si Chan and then Wat Liap before the growth of temples on either side made it simply the one in the middle. None of that is a dated record, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
The Pali name is supposed to have come later. The university library's account has Prince Vajirananavarorasa visiting Songkhla in B.E. 2431 (1888) and giving the temple a Pali name meaning the same thing the townspeople already called it — matchima, middle — and then Rama VI raising it to royal-monastery status in B.E. 2460 (1917). Both claims are specific, both name a royal figure, and neither could be matched for this page to a Royal Gazette instrument. So the temple's royal grade is left blank here rather than guessed at. What can be said without inference is that the formal name ends in Worawihan, which is one of the official sub-ranks of a royal monastery, so the temple plainly carries royal status; it is the grade and the instrument that are missing, not the fact.
The building that matters is the ordination hall. The ONEP register and the community-tourism record maintained by DASTA both describe it as early Rattanakosin work in a Thai-Chinese idiom — roof finials without nagas, a front pediment with Indra on the elephant Erawan, a rear pediment with Brahma on a hamsa, and colonnade bases carved with scenes from the Chinese novel of the Three Kingdoms. That mixture is not decoration for its own sake. Songkhla town in this period was governed by the Na Songkhla family, descendants of a Hokkien merchant who took the governorship under Rattanakosin rule, and a temple built in their town under their patronage looks exactly like this.
Inside, the murals do something unusual. Alongside the expected celestial assemblies and jataka scenes, the walls carry the port: the cape, the shipping, the commerce of Songkhla harbour painted as a subject in its own right. A temple mural that records the trade of the town it stands in is rare anywhere in Thailand, and it is the single best reason to go in. A separate hall, the Sala Ruesi, holds a cycle of forty painted ascetics, each with a verse describing a traditional remedy, dated by the ONEP register to B.E. 2406 (1863) — a southern cousin of the better-known hermit figures at Wat Pho in Bangkok, and a reminder that temples in this period were where medical knowledge was kept and copied.
The temple's third life is as a museum. From the 1930s an abbot began collecting antiquities out of the surrounding districts of Sathing Phra and Ranot, the collection was moved into a renovated hall on the grounds in the 1950s, and in 1961 the Fine Arts Department took it into the national museum system. It is now the Matchimawat National Museum, and it holds Dvaravati-period images, stone sculpture, clay moulds for casting Buddha images, and Chinese ceramics — most of it dug or gathered from the peninsula that produced the two oldest temples in this guide's Songkhla file.
The ordination hall, early Rattanakosin and Thai-Chinese: roof finials without nagas, a front pediment carrying Indra on the elephant Erawan, a rear pediment carrying Brahma on a hamsa, and stone reliefs of Three Kingdoms scenes set into the colonnade bases. The DASTA community-tourism record describes all of these features specifically.
The ubosot murals, which paint Songkhla harbour and its shipping alongside the celestial assemblies and jataka cycles — a temple wall used to record a working port. The university library's museum account attributes the painting to court artisans in the Fourth Reign.
The Sala Ruesi, a hall of forty painted ascetics each accompanied by a verse describing a traditional remedy, dated by the ONEP register to B.E. 2406 (1863).
The principal image: marble, in the meditation posture, given by the DASTA record as 55 cm across the chest, in the same Thai-Chinese manner as the hall around it.
Ornamental gateways in the enclosure wall, mixing Chinese and European motifs — the ONEP register singles them out and they are the clearest single statement of who was paying for this temple.
The Matchimawat National Museum on the temple grounds, holding Dvaravati images, a Shiva figure, stone carving, clay Buddha-image moulds and Chinese ceramics gathered from Sathing Phra and Ranot districts.
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 | A working royal monastery in the middle of a town. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off inside the ordination hall and the museum buildings. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On Saiburi Road in Tambon Bo Yang, Mueang Songkhla — in the old town, walkable from the Songkhla National Museum and the old-town shophouse streets. |
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.
Because the nickname came first. Temple tradition, as told in the Prince of Songkla University library's account, holds that the temple stood between two others and so was simply the middle temple — Wat Klang. The Pali name Matchimawat means the same thing, and that account has it conferred by Prince Vajirananavarorasa on a visit in B.E. 2431 (1888). Townspeople have gone on using the older name ever since, and both are correct.
It is a royal monastery: the formal name ends in Worawihan, which is one of the official sub-ranks, so the status is not in doubt. The grade is another matter. The register kept by the Songkhla provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism could not be opened for this page, and this guide does not print a grade it has not read in a register. A university library account says Rama VI raised the temple to the third class in B.E. 2460 (1917); that is reported here as an account, not as the record.
Three things at once. There are the conventional subjects — celestial assemblies, jataka tales, scenes from the life of the Buddha — and then, unusually, the port of Songkhla itself: the cape, the shipping and the commerce of the harbour, painted as a subject rather than as background. The university library's museum account attributes the work to court artisans in the Fourth Reign. A temple wall used as a record of a working harbour is rare, and it is the main reason to go inside.
Yes, and it is a separate institution. The Matchimawat National Museum began as an abbot's collection of antiquities gathered from Sathing Phra and Ranot districts in the 1930s, moved into a renovated hall on the grounds in the 1950s, and was taken into the Fine Arts Department's national museum system in 1961. It holds Dvaravati-period images, stone sculpture, clay moulds for casting Buddha images and Chinese ceramics. The national museum database records it as open Wednesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 16:00, without charge.
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 Songkhla’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.