The Khun Chang Khun Phaen temple, registered in 1987 on a plan that marks the tamarind tree along with the thirteen buildings.
วัดแค · Wat Khae
| Official name | วัดแค — Wat Khae |
|---|---|
| Where | Rua Yai, Mueang Suphan Buri, Suphan Buri |
| 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 Royal Gazette vol. 104, special part 18, p. 9, 1 February B.E. 2530, announced 8 January B.E. 2530, with a survey plan attached Read at source, both the announcement and its plan. The department registers โบราณสถานวัดแค, Tambon Rua Yai, Amphoe Mueang Suphan Buri, under section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act B.E. 2504, with a monument area of about 1 rai 3 ngan 58 square wa according to the plan attached, which matches the register figure exactly. Worth noting that the announcement registers the monument as Wat Khae while the attached plan is titled as the plan of the VIHARA of Wat Khae, and the plan's key lists thirteen numbered structures inside the line. This monastery is not in the 1935 national list, so unlike the three monuments in the old town it has a single instrument and a determined boundary from the start. |
| Coordinates | 14.487483, 100.117817 Fine Arts Department national monument register, record 0008992, in Tambon Rua Yai, Amphoe Mueang Suphan Buri. The position lies about 800 metres north of record 0004884, consistent with the register's own statement that this monastery stands about a kilometre north of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat. |
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 literary argument is a real one and it is still a literary argument. A poem naming a temple shows the temple was known when the poem circulated. It does not date the buildings, and the department's own bracket for the reign it names is internally inconsistent.
Every Thai schoolchild knows this temple, and almost none of them could tell you a date attached to it. Wat Khae is where Khun Phaen learns, in the sepha of Khun Chang Khun Phaen, which is the longest and most-read narrative poem in the language. The Fine Arts Department register leads with exactly that: the name appears in the sepha, and Prince Damrong held the story to be a real one of the Ayutthaya period. A poem is the reason this monastery is famous and a poem is not a date.
The register then does something careful and something careless in the same sentence. The careful part is that it treats the dating as a supposition. The careless part is the bracket it prints: it names King Borommaracha the Second, Chao Sam Phraya, and attaches the years B.E. 2032 to 2072 to him. Those years do not belong to that reign, and the department does not notice. This page prints neither number as fact, names the reign the register names, and leaves the arithmetic in the open questions where it belongs.
What is solid is the registration. On 8 January B.E. 2530 the Director-General signed an announcement putting the monument on the register under section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act, and it was published in the Royal Gazette three weeks later with a surveyor's plan attached. The protected area is about 1 rai 3 ngan 58 square wa, which is small, and the plan shows why: the line is drawn tightly round a cluster of thirteen numbered structures on the riverward side of the compound, with the village and the monks' quarters outside it.
The plan is worth looking at for its own sake, because it marks a tree. Among the vihara of Phra Phuttha Mongkhon, the vihara of the Buddha footprint, the group of old chedi, a further vihara, a riverside sala, the ordination hall and its line of boundary stones, the pavilion of Luang Pu Khong, the preaching hall and the lavatories, the surveyor drew the tamarind. Visitors come here for that tree. The Fine Arts Department recorded it on a legal instrument and published no age for it, and neither does this page.
The monastery sits on the west bank of the Tha Chin about a kilometre upstream of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, which is how the register itself locates it, and the coordinate the register gives puts the two about 800 metres apart, so the description and the position agree. Together with Wat Phra Rup a kilometre below the prang, the three make a single walk along one bank, and they are the whole surviving core of the old town.
The vihara of Phra Phuttha Mongkhon and the vihara of the Buddha footprint, which are structures 1 and 2 on the registration plan.
The group of old chedi, a further vihara and the riverside sala, numbers 3 to 5 on the same plan.
The ordination hall with its line of boundary stones, numbers 6 and 7, which is where the surveyor drew the edge of the protected ground.
The tamarind tree, drawn on the registration plan itself alongside the buildings. No official source consulted gives it an age, and none is given here.
The monument boundary: about 1 rai 3 ngan 58 square wa, a tight line round the riverward cluster with the village and the monks' quarters left outside it.
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 monastery. Cover shoulders and knees, and take your shoes off before going into the ordination hall or either vihara. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On the west bank of the Suphan Buri river, which is the Tha Chin, about a kilometre upstream of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat by the register's own reckoning. |
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.
Yes. The Fine Arts Department register opens its account of the monastery with the appearance of the name in the sepha, and with Prince Damrong holding the story to be a real one of the Ayutthaya period.
Nobody official says. The Fine Arts Department drew the tree on the registration plan it attached to the Royal Gazette in 1987 and published no age for it.
The announcement was signed on 8 January B.E. 2530 and published in the Royal Gazette on 1 February B.E. 2530, with the survey plan attached.
About 1 rai 3 ngan 58 square wa, which is a tight line round thirteen numbered structures rather than the whole compound.
No official source consulted publishes any.
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 Suphan Buri’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.