Suphan Buri's royal monastery, built around a seated Buddha more than twenty-three metres high that was almost certainly a different Buddha first.
วัดป่าเลไลยก์วรวิหาร · Wat Pa Lelai Worawihan
| Official name | วัดป่าเลไลยก์วรวิหาร — Wat Pa Lelai Worawihan |
|---|---|
| Where | Rua Yai, Mueang Suphan Buri, Suphan Buri |
| Royal temple class | Third class royal temple, Worawihan (พระอารามหลวงชั้นตรี ชนิดวรวิหาร) The Suphan Buri Provincial Office of Buddhism states the grade in its own report on the monastery, and resolutions of the Sangha Supreme Council published by the National Office of Buddhism use the same formula when appointing an abbot, a deputy abbot and assistant abbots to it. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument Royal Gazette vol. 52, part 75, p. 3710, 8 March B.E. 2478, item 9 of the Suphan Buri section; land boundary set by Royal Gazette vol. 101, special part 55, p. 9, 27 April B.E. 2527 Two instruments, read at source, and they agree. The 1935 list enters the monastery as วัดป่าเลไลยก์, Amphoe Tha Phi Liang, Tambon Rua Yai, item 9 of thirty-six in this province. The 1984 announcement recites that registration, notes that the place is now in Amphoe Mueang Suphan Buri, states that no land boundary had ever been set, and sets one in two zones under section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act B.E. 2504: area ก of about 8 rai 1 ngan 42 square wa and area ข of about 1 rai 57 square wa. Both figures match the register exactly. The 1984 recital is also where the part number of the 1935 list, 75, can be read, which the register's own citation omits. |
| Coordinates | 14.474543, 100.094383 Fine Arts Department national monument register, record 0004901, which places it in Tambon Rua Yai, Amphoe Mueang Suphan Buri, the subdistrict named by both the 1935 list and the 1984 boundary instrument, and matching the Malaiman Road address the provincial Buddhism office gives. |
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 chronicle, the surmise and the register are three different kinds of claim and this page keeps them apart. A chronicle is a chronicle. The U Thong attribution is a prince's reading of a converted image, which the department itself labels a surmise. Only the fourth-reign restoration and the 1935 registration rest on a document.
Walk into the vihara and the first thing that registers is scale. The Buddha fills the building, feet on the floor, knees at your eye level, head somewhere up in the dark. The Fine Arts Department measures Luang Pho To from the soles to the top of the flame at 23.48 metres. The Tourism Authority prints 23.46 for the same image. He sits European-fashion, both feet down, in the posture called Pa Lelai, after the Palilayaka retreat where an elephant and a monkey waited on the Buddha through a rains season in the forest. The pillar on his left carries the monkey holding up a honeycomb. The pillar on his right carries the elephant with a water pot.
He was probably not always this Buddha. Prince Damrong looked at the arms, saw repair work, and concluded the figure began as a Dvaravati image in the gesture of the first sermon, of the kind built out in the open to be seen from a distance, which is what the great seated image at Phra Pathom Chedi still is. The Fine Arts Department carries that reading and the Tourism Authority repeats it. Turning a preaching Buddha into a Palilayaka Buddha means adding an elephant, a monkey and a story. It does not mean rebuilding the body, which is why the join shows at the arms and nowhere else.
The building grew the same way. The register describes a brick-and-stucco hall it believes predates Ayutthaya and dates alongside the image, and suggests the original was a mondop covering the figure and nothing more. In the Ayutthaya period Phraya Sihratchadechochai was ordered to extend it, adding three masonry pillars on each side and three tiers of roof on each side. The outline you see now came out of King Mongkut's major restoration in the fourth reign. He had been here before, on foot, as a monk walking tudong, and when he came to the throne he sent builders. The Great Crown emblem on the gable is his signature on the work.
None of that tells you how old the monastery is, and the department does not pretend otherwise. Its register states plainly that no clear evidence shows when the place began. What exists instead is a name in the Northern Chronicle, Wat Lan Makhwit, the wood-apple yard, and a line in the sepha of Khun Chang Khun Phaen, which is how most Thai people meet this temple first. In 1935 it went onto the national register as item 9 of thirty-six Suphan Buri monuments. The land boundary took another forty-nine years to arrive, and when it did it came in two separate zones rather than one.
It is a working royal monastery of the third class, Worawihan rank, and the gold-leaf festival for Luang Pho To runs five days and five nights, twice a year, in the fifth and twelfth lunar months. The provincial Buddhism office puts those days at the fifth to the ninth of the waxing moon. The Tourism Authority puts them at the seventh to the ninth. Two state bodies, one festival, two sets of dates. Check before you book a trip around it.
Luang Pho To: brick faced in stucco, seated in the Pa Lelai posture with both feet on the ground, 23.48 metres from the soles to the tip of the flame by the Fine Arts Department's measure. Thirty-six relics of the Buddha are held, by the temple's own account, inside the image.
The two pillars flanking the image, which carry the story the posture refers to. On the left a monkey raising a honeycomb, on the right an elephant raising a water pot.
The vihara itself: brick and stucco, which the department dates on its architecture to before Ayutthaya and reads as an enlarged mondop, with three masonry pillars and three roof tiers added on each side in the Ayutthaya period.
The Great Crown emblem of King Mongkut on the gable, which is both an ornament and the register's evidence for who paid for the rebuilding.
The Mon vihara and the old ubosot, both recorded by the department as restored, standing in the same enclosure as the great hall.
Khum Khun Chang behind the temple: a group of tall teak houses on stilts put up to match the house described in Khun Chang Khun Phaen, with scenes from the poem, old tools, ceramics and furniture inside.
The two-zone monument boundary set in 1984, about 8 rai 1 ngan 42 square wa in area ก and about 1 rai 57 square wa in area ข, which is why the protected ground here is not one continuous shape.
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 and the busiest place of worship in the province. Cover shoulders and knees, and take your shoes off before stepping into the vihara where the image sits. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On Malaiman Road in Tambon Rua Yai, inside the Suphan Buri town municipality, on the west side of the town about three kilometres from the river. |
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 Suphan Buri Provincial Office of Buddhism records it as a third-class royal monastery of the Worawihan rank, and the Sangha Supreme Council resolutions use the same formula.
The Fine Arts Department register gives 23.48 metres from the soles of the feet to the tip of the flame. The Tourism Authority gives 23.46 metres for the same image.
Because the posture is Pa Lelai, the Palilayaka retreat, where an elephant and a monkey waited on the Buddha in the forest. Both animals appear on the pillars beside him.
Probably not. Prince Damrong read repair work in the arms and concluded the figure began as a Dvaravati image in the first-sermon gesture, later converted. The Fine Arts Department carries that as a surmise, not a finding.
Nobody can say. The Fine Arts Department register states in terms that there is no clear evidence of when it was built. The earliest firm date attached to the place is its 1935 entry on the national register.
No official source consulted publishes any. The Tourism Authority shows an open-or-closed indicator with no times printed behind it, and this page will not copy a time from a travel site.
Twice a year, in the fifth and twelfth lunar months, over five days and nights. The provincial Buddhism office says the fifth to ninth of the waxing moon, and the Tourism Authority says the seventh to the ninth.
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.