A Mon-form chedi with a Thai vihara built hard against it, and inside that vihara nineteen scenes from the Buddha's life painted on boards and plaster, which the Fine Arts Department has registered.
วัดโบสถ์มณีศรีบุญเรือง · Wat Bot Mani Si Bunruang
By the BAANLYY Editorial Team · Last checked 2 November 2026
| Official name | วัดโบสถ์มณีศรีบุญเรือง — Wat Bot Mani Si Bunruang |
|---|---|
| Where | Nong Luang, Mueang Tak, Tak |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Named in a Royal Gazette list of ancient monuments; not registered Royal Gazette vol. 140, special part 149 ngor, 23 June B.E. 2566, pages 40 to 41 — Fine Arts Department announcement listing ancient monuments in Tak province, Amphoe Mueang Tak item 6, at Thanon Taksin, Tambon Nong Luang; read at source This is a list, not a registration, and the distinction is the whole reason this guide has four monument states rather than two. The instrument is made under section 32 of the state administration law and recites the section 4 definition of an ancient monument; it does not invoke section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act B.E. 2504, which is the registration and boundary power, and it fixes no boundary and states no area. The monument is protected, and the provisions that attach only to a registered monument do not reach it. The register's own code for this id is status 1, registered, which does not sit easily with a declaratory listing in 2566 — most likely because the register files the Buddha footprint it names this id for separately from the monastery, and because the first national list of B.E. 2478 is widely said to carry the footprint. That list was not opened in this run, so the status recorded here is the one this run actually read. Note that the same gazette issue carries a different Fine Arts Department list, for Bangkok, at page 16; reading only that page produces the confident and wrong conclusion that this citation has nothing to do with Tak. |
| Coordinates | 16.884501, 99.120789 Fine Arts Department register, monument layer, monument 0003948; put through the register's subdistrict polygon layer, which returns Nong Luang (630102) in Mueang Tak (6301), the subdistrict the department's own gazette list states. The cultural environment register publishes an independent coordinate of 16.8847689917 and 99.120524971, about 35 m away, which agrees |
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.
Two state bodies disagree about the foundation year and about the merger by four decades, and one of them disagrees with itself. The environment register's 1 December B.E. 2456 is the better-supported merger date — precise to the day, in a government register, and echoed by local accounts — but it is not adopted here, and both are printed. A named governor as founder is the strongest provenance statement available for any of the six monuments in this run.
Start with the murals, because they are the best-documented thing in this province and they are not what the monastery is filed under. The Tourism Authority of Thailand sets out the program by the panel: inside the vihara, eight painted boards along each side, two on the plaster wall flanking the principal image, and one behind it. Nineteen scenes in all, every one from the life of the Buddha, and the authority states that the Fine Arts Department has registered them. Counted panels on a named wall is a rarer thing in the state record than it should be, and it is what to look for on arrival.
The building they are in is the oddity. Both state sources describe a Mon-form chedi, and the tourism authority calls the arrangement strange in its own words, because a Thai-style vihara stands immediately against the chedi rather than apart from it. The chedi holds relics, and the authority notes that its tiered umbrella finial has been restored with relics set into the upper part of the finial itself. The principal image inside the vihara is Luang Pho Phuttha Mon, which both the cultural environment register and the tourism authority describe as bronze, Sukhothai work of around the early 19th Buddhist century — the one object among these six whose material and period two state bodies state and agree on.
The monastery's own history is a merger, and the two state accounts of it are forty-one years apart. The cultural environment register says the place was founded around B.E. 2400 by Phraya Wichitraksa, personal name Kaeo, then governor of Mueang Tak; that the ordination hall went up in B.E. 2410; and that two separate monasteries standing side by side, Wat Bot Mani Rat and Wat Si Bunruang, divided by a wall behind the ordination hall, were joined into one on 1 December B.E. 2456 under the compound name the place now carries. The tourism authority gives B.E. 2401 in one field and B.E. 2402 in the next, names nobody, and puts the merger in B.E. 2497. The register's version is precise to the day and sits in a government record; this page prints both and adopts neither.
One field here is genuinely empty and the gap is worth naming, because of where it sits. The Fine Arts Department's register files this id not under the monastery's name but under a Buddha footprint at it, which means the footprint ought to be the best-attested object on the site. It is the worst. The environment register describes the chedi, the vihara, the ordination hall and the image and never mentions a footprint; the tourism authority describes the chedi, the vihara, the murals and the image and never mentions one either. A brass footprint made in B.E. 2444 is asserted in social posts and a video description and by nothing official, so it is not stated here. The footprint is almost certainly there. What it is made of and when it was made are not things this guide knows.
The mural program in the vihara: eight painted boards along each side, two on the plaster wall beside the principal image and one behind it — nineteen scenes from the life of the Buddha, which the Fine Arts Department has registered.
The Mon-form chedi holding relics, with a restored tiered umbrella finial and relics set into the upper part of the finial.
The Thai-style vihara standing hard against the chedi rather than apart from it, which the Tourism Authority of Thailand singles out as the strange thing about the place.
Luang Pho Phuttha Mon, the principal image: bronze, Sukhothai work of around the early 19th Buddhist century on two state sources' reckoning.
The ordination hall, which the cultural environment register dates to B.E. 2410, and the wall line behind it that once divided two separate monasteries.
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 in the middle of town: shoulders and knees covered, footwear off inside the vihara and the ordination hall. The murals are painted on board and plaster, so keep back from the walls and do not use a flash without asking. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On Thanon Taksin in Tambon Nong Luang, Mueang Tak, which is the address the Fine Arts Department's own gazette list gives. The tourism authority adds Ban Rommani as the locality. |
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.
They are in the vihara, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand counts them: eight painted boards along each side, two on the plaster beside the principal image and one behind it, nineteen scenes from the life of the Buddha. The authority states that the Fine Arts Department has registered them. The vihara is in use, so behave as you would in any working hall.
Nobody read here explains why; the state record only notes that it is. The Tourism Authority of Thailand calls the combination strange in its own words — a Thai-style vihara standing immediately against a Mon-form chedi — and treats it as the temple's signature feature rather than accounting for it.
Two state bodies disagree. The cultural environment register says around B.E. 2400, founded by Phraya Wichitraksa, personal name Kaeo, the governor of Mueang Tak. The Tourism Authority of Thailand gives B.E. 2401 in one field and B.E. 2402 in the next and names no founder. Both are printed here and neither is adopted.
The Fine Arts Department's register files this monument under one, which is strong reason to think so, but no state source read in this run describes it. The brass material and the year B.E. 2444 that circulate come from social posts and a video description, not from any official record, so this guide does not state them.
It is named in a Fine Arts Department list published in the Royal Gazette on 23 June B.E. 2566, which this run read at source. That list is made under the state administration law and recites the statutory definition; it is not a registration under section 7 of the Ancient Monuments Act and it fixes no land boundary. The monument is protected either way.
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.