Three niches bored into a cliff above the Ping, one gilded Buddha in each, reached by a wooden stair — named for three shadows rather than three images.
ผาสามเงา · Pha Sam Ngao
By the BAANLYY Editorial Team · Last checked 2 November 2026
| Official name | ผาสามเงา — Pha Sam Ngao |
|---|---|
| Where | Yan Ri, Sam Ngao, Tak |
| 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. 122, special part 69 ngor, 22 August B.E. 2548, page 5 — Fine Arts Department announcement fixing the land boundary of the ancient monument Pha Sam Ngao, which recites its earlier listing in the first national list at Royal Gazette vol. 52, page 3686 Read at source, and it is the instrument that proves the 2478 listing for this monument: it is boundary-fixing alone, and it recites the monument's appearance in the national list of ancient monuments at vol. 52 page 3686. That makes it the only one of the six here with a documented line back to the first national list of B.E. 2478. The 2548 text also shows the administrative location being restated — the 2478 entry says Tambon Sam Ngao, Amphoe Ban Tak, while this one fixes the boundary at Ban Nong Sano, Tambon Yan Ri, Amphoe Sam Ngao — which is why older references put Pha Sam Ngao in a different district. The declared area is NOT stated on this page: the gazette file is a two-column scan whose columns interleaved on reading, and the figure recovered reads as 1 ngan 50 square wa with a possible rai figure lost in the garbling. An incomplete number is worse than none, so none is carried and the re-read is a work item. |
| Coordinates | 17.213910, 99.041459 Fine Arts Department register, monument layer, monument 0004018; put through the register's subdistrict polygon layer, which returns Yan Ri (630304) in Sam Ngao (6303) — the subdistrict and district the B.E. 2548 boundary instrument states, and not the Tambon Sam Ngao, Amphoe Ban Tak of the earlier listing |
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.
Neither state source names a chronicle — not the Chamadevi Wong, not the Tamnan Mun Satsana, nothing. They say only that the story is handed down by telling, which is weaker than a cited chronicle, and the single year on offer is hedged twice over, as approximate and as legend. Worth knowing too that the same Chamadevi-on-the-Ping tradition attaches independently to Wat Phra Borommathat about 25 km downstream, where the Tak provincial office records her stopping and ordering the deserted town restored. A regional legend localized in two places is a reason for more care, not less.
The thing itself is simple and the state record describes it twice, consistently. At the foot of a cliff above the Ping, three deep niches are bored into the rock in a row, and each holds one gilded Buddha image. A wooden staircase goes up to them. The tourism authority adds that the niches can be made out from a distance from the town of Sam Ngao, which is how the place got into local speech in the first place. That is the whole of what two state bodies will say about the fabric, and what they will not say is as useful: nobody publishes the images' material — gilded describes a surface, not a substrate — and nobody publishes a height above the ground or the river.
The name is about shadows, and getting the order right is the point of the story. In the legend both state sources carry, and both flag as a legend in their opening words, Queen Chamadevi was summoned from Lawo up the Ping to rule the newly founded Hariphunchai. At this cliff a storm stopped her boats. She vowed that if she truly had the merit to rule, the omens would cease; lightning cracked, the air cleared, and three shadows of Buddha images appeared on the rock face. Only then did she order images cut to match them, and have the place celebrated for three nights. Sam Ngao means three shadows. The images came second.
What the record does carry firmly is the paperwork, and here this monument is the strongest of the six. The Fine Arts Department's boundary instrument of 22 August B.E. 2548 was read at source, and because it is a boundary-fixing act alone it had to recite the earlier listing it was acting on: the national list of ancient monuments at vol. 52 page 3686. That single recital is what gives Pha Sam Ngao a documented line back to the first national list of B.E. 2478, and it is the reason this guide can say that Tak's royal monastery in Mueang Tak is probably not in that list while this cliff is — the department drafts the two situations differently and used both forms three months apart. The same instrument quietly records an administrative change too: in 2478 the monument sat in Tambon Sam Ngao, Amphoe Ban Tak, and by 2548 it is at Ban Nong Sano, Tambon Yan Ri, Amphoe Sam Ngao. Same cliff, redrawn map.
Two things a visitor should know that the record does not settle. The first is the hours: the Ministry of Tourism publishes a window of 19.00 to 06.00 for an open wooden stair up a cliff, which is not a time anybody climbs it, and the identical inverted pattern on three other Tak entries marks it as a data fault rather than a fact — so no hours are carried here, only that admission is free and the site opens daily. The second is the dam. The Bhumibol Dam drowned monasteries upstream in Tambon Ban Na and Kaeng Soi, and the Fine Arts Department has published on what came out of them; this cliff sits downstream of the dam on the Ban Tak road and no state source read says the water reached it. Do not let the two stories merge.
Three niches bored deep into the rock at the foot of the cliff, set in a row, each holding one gilded Buddha image — visible from a distance across the valley from Sam Ngao.
The wooden staircase up to the niches, which both state sources describe and neither counts.
The cliff face itself above the Ping, which is the surface the three shadows of the legend are said to have appeared on.
The parking area at the foot and a disabled-access service point, which are the whole of the published facilities.
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 | Thai nationals: free. Foreign visitors: free. |
| Dress | A cliff shrine rather than a monastery, with no dress rule published, but the three images are objects of veneration: shoulders and knees covered is the right default and footwear comes off where the niches are approached. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | In Tambon Yan Ri, Amphoe Sam Ngao. The tourism authority gives two routes: highway 1107 from the city of Tak, 25 km, or highway 1 to kilometer 463 then left towards the Bhumibol Dam, about 10 km on from Amphoe Sam Ngao. Highway 1107 is itself named for Chedi Yutthahatthi and the Bhumibol Dam, so this monument and the two at Ban Tak sit on one corridor. Car and motorcycle access, with parking at the foot and a wooden staircase up. |
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.
Three shadows, not three statues. In the legend both state sources carry, three shadows of Buddha images appeared on the cliff face after Queen Chamadevi's vow stilled the storm that had stopped her boats, and she then ordered images made to match them. Ngao means shadow or reflection, and the name describes what was seen before anything was carved.
No state source will say. There is no documentary attribution for the cutting of the niches or the making of the images, and the only year in circulation — around B.E. 1206 — appears in one state source inside an acknowledged legend and hedged as approximate. The monument's documented history begins with its listing in the national list of ancient monuments.
Yes, and it has the clearest paper trail of the six in this guide. The Fine Arts Department's instrument of 22 August B.E. 2548 fixes its land boundary, and because it is a boundary-fixing act it recites the earlier listing it acts on, at Royal Gazette vol. 52 page 3686 — the first national list of B.E. 2478.
No state source read says so, and the geography is against it: the cliff is downstream of the dam on the Ban Tak road, and both state sources describe normal access by road and wooden stair with no mention of changed water levels. Monasteries upstream in Tambon Ban Na were drowned, and those are different places.
No reliable hours are published. The Ministry of Tourism's directory gives 19.00 to 06.00 seven days a week for an open wooden stair up a cliff, and shows the same kind of inverted overnight window on three other unrelated Tak entries, so the field is a data fault rather than a timetable. Its note does say daily, and admission is free.
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 Tak’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.
Last checked 2 November 2026
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.