The registered ancient monument at the centre of Surat Thani town: an ordination hall of B.E. 2441 whose stucco door guardians are dressed as soldiers of the fifth reign, in pith helmets and tunics. The Fine Arts Department reads the temple as a contemporary record of the founding of the town itself.
วัดพัฒนาราม · Wat Phatthanaram
| Official name | วัดพัฒนาราม — Wat Phatthanaram |
|---|---|
| Where | Talat, Mueang Surat Thani, Surat Thani |
| 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. 118, special part 127 ง, p. 10, 21 December B.E. 2544 Registered and given a land boundary in a single act — ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนและกำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน — downloaded from the department's mirror and read in this run. The announcement covers six monuments across three provinces, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani and Chumphon. โบราณสถานวัดพัฒนาราม ตำบลตลาด อำเภอเมืองสุราษฎร์ธานี is item 5, with a monument area of about 1 rai 1 ngan 3 square wa, which matches the department's structured register row exactly. Item 4 of the same announcement is โบราณสถานวัดเขาพระอานนท์ ตำบลศรีวิชัย อำเภอพุนพิน — the other Surat Thani monument in the instrument, and one this guide has not built. It was signed by Group Captain Arwuth Ngoenchuklin, Director-General of the Fine Arts Department; the signing date printed beneath his name was not legible in optical reading and is deliberately not given here. |
| Coordinates | 9.148577, 99.328772 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0005123 (approximate — the register flags this position ABOUT, not GPS) |
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 land the temple stands on was the cemetery of Wat Phra Yok, where Luang Pho Phat had previously been resident. The temple was known simply as Wat Mai — the new temple — throughout his lifetime, and was renamed Wat Phatthanaram after his death in memory of the man who built it.
Wat Phatthanaram stands in Tambon Talat in the middle of Surat Thani town, and the Fine Arts Department's register makes an argument about it that is worth following, because it is the reason a nineteenth-century temple is a registered national monument at all. The town of Surat Thani is younger than it looks. In the reign of King Mongkut the town of Tha Thong was moved to Ban Don and the new town was granted the name Mueang Kanchanadit; in the reign of King Vajiravudh the town at Ban Don was given the name it now has, Surat Thani. Wat Phatthanaram was built in exactly that window. The department's conclusion is that the temple is a contemporary record of the making of the town at Ban Don — เป็นบันทึกประวัติศาสตร์ของชุมชนสุราษฎร์ธานีที่บ้านดอน — and that is what it is registered for.
The man who built it was Luang Pho Phat Naratho. He was resident at Wat Phra Yok, and before he had been ten rains in the robe he set about founding a new temple on land that had been Wat Phra Yok's cemetery. The temple's own records, as the department reports them, put the start in the sixth month of the Year of the Monkey, Atthasok, B.E. 2439; the ordination hall was begun and finished in B.E. 2441; the temple received its visungkhamsima in B.E. 2444. Through his lifetime it was called simply Wat Mai, the new temple. It was renamed for him after his death.
The ordination hall is the monument. It is a masonry building 13 metres by 22, on a raised platform, with a gabled roof and two tiers of eaves in double-corrugated tile, carried on round columns that run around the outside. Both gables are carved wood. There are two door leaves front and back, and the windows are openings in the wall fitted with wooden grilles rather than shutters.
What makes it worth travelling for is on the columns at the doors. On the inner columns beside the entrances, front and back, are stucco yaksha. On the outer columns are stucco dvarapala — guardian figures — and they are not the demons or the Chinese generals you would expect. They are modelled as people, dressed as soldiers of the Thai army of the reign of King Chulalongkorn: pith helmet, tunic, long trousers. And one of them is dressed differently again, in the manner of an Indian or Persian, with a turban. A temple guarded by men in the uniform of the modern Siamese state, at the moment that state was reorganising the south into provinces, is not decoration; it is a date carved into the building.
Inside, the principal image is a crowned Buddha in the earth-touching attitude, with a Buddha holding an alms bowl and a Buddha calming the ocean set one to each side. Above the window openings runs a painted cycle of the life of the Buddha. Outside stand eight sema pavilions. The department records that the hall has since been restored and repainted.
The other reason people come is Luang Pho Phat himself. The Tourism Authority of Thailand's page for the temple is given over almost entirely to it: he died seated in meditation, his body did not decay, and it remains at the temple in a state the Authority describes as dry and hard like stone. It is a place of devotion and should be treated as one. BAANLYY does not represent the temple and nothing here is religious or legal advice.
The ordination hall: masonry, 13 by 22 metres, on a raised platform, gabled with two tiers of eaves in double-corrugated tile, carried on round columns running around the building, with carved wooden gables front and back.
The windows — openings cut in the wall and fitted with wooden grilles rather than glazed or shuttered frames.
The stucco yaksha on the inner columns beside the front and back doors.
The stucco guardian figures on the outer columns, modelled as men in the uniform of the Thai army of the fifth reign — pith helmet, tunic, long trousers — with one figure dressed instead in Indian or Persian style with a turban.
Inside the hall: a crowned Buddha in the earth-touching attitude as the principal image, flanked by a Buddha holding an alms bowl and a Buddha calming the ocean, one on each side.
The painted cycle of the life of the Buddha above the window openings.
The eight sema pavilions outside the hall.
The body of Luang Pho Phat Naratho, kept at the temple in the seated meditation posture.
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 temple and a place of devotion around the body of its founder. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before entering the ordination hall. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Talat, Amphoe Mueang Surat Thani, Surat Thani 84000 — in the middle of the town at Ban Don, not out at Chaiya. Parking on site. |
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 of what it dates rather than how old it is. The Fine Arts Department's register argues that Wat Phatthanaram was built in the same years that the town at Ban Don was being established — the town moved there from Tha Thong in the reign of King Mongkut and was given the name Surat Thani in the reign of King Vajiravudh — and that the temple is therefore a contemporary record of the making of the town. It was registered with its land boundary in one act on 21 December B.E. 2544, with a monument area of about 1 rai 1 ngan 3 square wa.
Stucco dvarapala on the outer columns beside the doors, modelled not as demons but as people, and dressed as soldiers of the Thai army of the reign of King Chulalongkorn — pith helmet, tunic and long trousers. One of the figures is dressed instead in Indian or Persian style with a turban. Stucco yaksha stand on the inner columns beside the same doors.
The monk who founded the temple. He was resident at Wat Phra Yok and, before ten rains in the robe, began building a new temple on land that had been Wat Phra Yok's cemetery, starting in the sixth month of the Year of the Monkey, B.E. 2439. The temple was known as Wat Mai — the new temple — throughout his lifetime and was renamed Wat Phatthanaram after his death in his memory. The Tourism Authority of Thailand records that he died in the seated meditation posture and that his body did not decay; it is kept at the temple, and it is what most Thai visitors come for.
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 Surat Thani’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.