A third-class royal monastery in Songkhla old town whose ordination-hall murals include a procession of the Chinese sea goddess Mazu — the clearest surviving statement of who built and paid for this town.
วัดโพธิ์ปฐมาวาส · Wat Pho Pathamawat
| Official name | วัดโพธิ์ปฐมาวาส — Wat Pho Pathamawat |
|---|---|
| Where | Bo Yang, Mueang Songkhla, Songkhla |
| Royal temple class | Third class royal temple, Saman (ชั้นตรี ชนิดสามัญ) The Songkhla provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism, whose register entry for the temple gives its rank verbatim as พระอารามหลวง ชั้นตรี ชนิด สามัญ — a third-class royal monastery of the ordinary sub-rank. |
| Monastic order | Maha Nikaya |
| Ancient monument | Carried in the national monument register; gazette announcement unread The ONEP cultural-environment register states that the Fine Arts Department registered the temple as an ancient monument in B.E. 2528 (1985). No gazette announcement for that registration could be opened for this page — the department's own register and the Royal Gazette search both failed to yield it — so the registration is carried here as stated by a state register and unread in the instrument. It is not printed as a citation because nobody read one. |
| Coordinates | 7.192414, 100.593880 ONEP cultural-environment register, site 4808 |
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.
Both registers give B.E. 2200 (1657) and neither cites an inscription or a contemporary document for it, so the agreement is real but may be two offices drawing on one temple's own account. The university database frames the date as belief rather than fact and places the foundation in the reign of King Narai, which is consistent with it.
Wat Pho Pathamawat stands at number 236 in Ban Bo Yang, a few streets from Wat Matchimawat in the old town of Songkhla, and its register entry is the most complete of any temple in this file. The Songkhla provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism records it as a royal monastery of the third class and ordinary sub-rank, of the Maha Nikaya order, established B.E. 2200 (1657) with its ordination boundary granted B.E. 2210 (1667), on 7 rai 3 ngan and 58.90 square wa of ground. The ONEP cultural-environment register carries the same founding year independently. Two government offices agreeing is worth more than one, though it is worth saying plainly that both may be repeating the temple's own account rather than an instrument.
The name is a small piece of social history in itself. Both registers and the Prince of Songkla University library's southern-Thailand database tell the same story: the ground was a marketplace, the temple that went up on it was called Wat Phok after the trade, the name drifted phonetically to Wat Pho, and an abbot later gave it the fuller Wat Pho Pathamawat. Nobody claims to know who founded it. The university database says so directly, and this page follows it.
The temple's visible fabric is nineteenth century and it belongs to the family that ran Songkhla. The university library's database attributes the ordination hall to about B.E. 2360 (1817), built by an official named Bun Chin, and a major restoration and enlargement to B.E. 2402 (1859) under his son, a governor of Songkhla of the Na Songkhla family — the line descended from a Hokkien merchant that held the governorship through the early Rattanakosin period. The ONEP register independently records a major restoration in the Fourth Reign in B.E. 2402, which is the strongest corroborated date on this page. A further restoration in the Sixth Reign is recorded by the register and is said to be dated in stucco lettering on the hall's own pediment, at B.E. 2461 (1918).
What makes the hall worth crossing town for is a door panel. Among the conventional subjects inside — celestial figures, Indra's chariot, the hell realms, dhamma scenes — the murals carry a procession of Mazu, the Chinese sea goddess whom Hokkien seafarers carried wherever they sailed and who is worshipped in Songkhla to this day. Around her the painters put southern Thai architecture and southern Thai courtship customs. A Buddhist ordination hall in a Thai town, painted with a Chinese maritime deity by local artisans under the patronage of a Chinese-descended governor, is not a curiosity; it is an accurate picture of who lived in Songkhla in the nineteenth century. A Silpakorn University master's thesis was written on these murals as exactly that kind of social document.
Three stupas stand in front of the hall, said by the university database to hold respectively a relic, scripture and a Buddha image, and dated to about B.E. 2424 to 2425 (1881 to 1882). The columns inside the hall are cut in a half-round bamboo form framing niched images, dated to roughly the same moment and pointed to as a marker of a distinctly southern building style. The ONEP register also states that the Fine Arts Department registered the temple as an ancient monument in B.E. 2528 (1985), and that the elevation to royal-monastery status came in B.E. 2546 (2003); neither of those instruments could be opened for this page, which is why the monument line on it is cautious.
The ordination hall, given by the university library's database as 13.19 by 20.49 metres, with a pediment carrying a stacked-tray motif above a dharma wheel and a restoration date reported in stucco lettering as B.E. 2461 (1918).
The mural of a Mazu procession on a door panel — the Chinese sea goddess of Hokkien seafarers, painted inside a Thai ordination hall, with southern Thai architecture and courtship scenes around her.
The rest of the mural cycle: celestial figures, Indra's chariot, the hell realms and dhamma narratives, in the ordinary programme of the period.
Half-round bamboo-form columns framing niched Buddha images, dated by the university database to about B.E. 2425 (1882) and cited there as a marker of southern Thai style.
Three stupas standing in front of the ordination hall, dated to about B.E. 2424 to 2425 and said to hold a relic, scripture and an image respectively.
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 | An active royal monastery. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off in the ordination hall. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | House number 236, Ban Bo Yang, Tambon Bo Yang, Mueang Songkhla — in the old town, a short walk from Wat Matchimawat. The address is as given in the register kept by the Songkhla provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism. |
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.
It is a royal monastery of the third class, ordinary sub-rank. The register kept by the Songkhla provincial office of the National Office of Buddhism states it verbatim as พระอารามหลวง ชั้นตรี ชนิด สามัญ, and the same office records the community as Maha Nikaya. The third-class ordinary grade is the entry rung of the royal ladder: it marks a temple the state has taken into royal patronage without the ceremonial weight of the higher sub-ranks. The ONEP register dates the elevation to B.E. 2546 (2003), though the announcement itself was not read for this page.
Because that is who lived in Songkhla. Mazu is the sea goddess of Hokkien seafarers, and Songkhla town was governed through the early Rattanakosin period by the Na Songkhla family, descendants of a Hokkien merchant. The ordination hall was built and then enlarged under that family's patronage, and local painters put a Mazu procession on a door panel alongside the jataka and hell scenes. It is not syncretic decoration for its own sake; it is an accurate picture of the town, and a Silpakorn University thesis treats the murals as exactly that.
The registers give an establishment year of B.E. 2200 (1657) and an ordination-boundary grant of B.E. 2210 (1667), and two separate government offices carry the same figure. Neither cites an inscription or a contemporary document, and the Prince of Songkla University database frames the date as belief and says the founder is unknown. The buildings you can actually see are much later: the ordination hall is attributed to about B.E. 2360 (1817), with a major enlargement in B.E. 2402 (1859) and another restoration around B.E. 2461 (1918).
The registers and the Prince of Songkla University database all tell the same story: the ground was a marketplace, so the temple built on it was called Wat Phok after the trade there. The name drifted in speech to Wat Pho — which readers will also recognise as the bodhi tree — and an abbot, Phra Khru Sangkhasophon, later gave it the present fuller form, Wat Pho Pathamawat. The market origin is the temple's own remembered history rather than something a document establishes.
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.