Wat Mani Banphot Worawihan

What the official record says

Where Wat Mani Banphot Worawihan is

When was it founded — and what actually establishes that?

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 give two accounts about 400 years apart, and neither is reconciled here. The Buddhism office's B.E. 2390 is a flat assertion with no basis stated; the environment register's Ayutthaya dating is marked as a surmise and reasoned from the mineral content of the hill, which is not evidence of a foundation date at all. No state source read gives a date for the monastery's raising to royal status, nor a visungkhamsima date — a year of B.E. 2436 circulates in temple directories and a web forum and is carried by neither.

The history of Wat Mani Banphot Worawihan

Tak's royal monastery is not the grandest thing in the province and it is the one with a rank. Two state bodies — the National Office of Buddhism's provincial office and the national tourism authority — state in identical words that it is a third-class royal monastery, the province's royal temple, and a model development temple. Neither of them gives a sub-rank, which is awkward, because the temple's own name ends in worawihan and that is a sub-rank. The name is good evidence and it is not a citation, so this page leaves the sub-rank empty and says why.

The older name explains the site. The provincial office records that the ground is a low hill containing hin kaeo nam khang, the quartz locally called Hanuman's fang, and that this is where the name Wat Khao Kaeo came from. The cultural environment register reasons from the same mineral to a surmise that the monastery goes back to the Ayutthaya period; the provincial office simply states that it was built in B.E. 2390. Nothing reconciles the two, and the register's reasoning is worth seeing for what it is — a hill's geology is not a founding date. What the register does date firmly is the ordination hall on the hill, to B.E. 2435, and it names the man who paid for it: Than Phueak, who owned a market in Sukhothai.

Inside the ordination hall are the two things the town comes for, and one of them is not a Buddha. The principal image is a Chiang Saen-style figure with a lap width of 30 inches, which the provincial office records was brought by villagers from an abandoned monastery in Tambon Mae Tuen, Amphoe Mae Ramat, in B.E. 2473, and which it calls the sacred image of Mueang Tak. Its name is spelled two ways by three state bodies — the Buddhism office writes Saeng Thong, golden light; the tourism authority and the environment register both write Saen Thong — and this page prints the disagreement rather than choosing. Beside it hangs a royal portrait of King Chulalongkorn, which the provincial office records he granted to this temple. A portrait, not an image, and a grant, not a visit.

The rest of the compound rewards a slow walk and one part of it is nearly gone. There is a Mon-form chedi, an inverted bell on a base with twelve indented corners, holding relics of the Buddha, which the tourism authority describes as over a hundred years old; a teak house in the Thai manner sheltering an antique Buddha image carved from marble and dressed in the Burmese style, which is the one object here whose material the record actually states; a walking Buddha at the foot of the stairway up the hill; and, behind the temple, a wooden scripture library standing in water, attributed to Ayutthaya-period craftsmen and now badly decayed. The two state accounts of that library disagree on what survives: the environment register, writing in B.E. 2563, says the carved pediment with its motif of the sun drawing a chariot is the one element still sound, while the tourism authority says the carving has faded almost out of sight and the interior is not open. Date any condition statement you repeat.

What you actually see

The principal image in the ordination hall: Chiang Saen in style, a lap width of 30 inches, brought by villagers from an abandoned monastery in Tambon Mae Tuen, Amphoe Mae Ramat, in B.E. 2473. Its material is stated by nobody.

The royal portrait of King Chulalongkorn in the same hall, which the National Office of Buddhism records he granted to this temple.

The Mon-form chedi — an inverted bell on a base with twelve indented corners — holding relics of the Buddha, described by the tourism authority as over a hundred years old.

The teak house in the Thai manner, sheltering an antique Buddha image carved from marble and adorned in the Burmese style.

The wooden scripture library standing in water behind the temple, attributed to Ayutthaya-period craftsmen, severely decayed and closed inside, with a carved pediment bearing the sun drawing a chariot.

The walking Buddha at the foot of the stairway up the hill, and the ordination hall above it, dated by the environment register to B.E. 2435.

Visiting: hours, admission, dress and photography

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.

What we could not establish

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.

• The sub-rank. The temple's name ends in worawihan, and not one state source read states a sub-rank; the string that circulates comes from popular sources only, so none is carried here.
• The founding date, where two state bodies are about 400 years apart — B.E. 2390 asserted without basis against an Ayutthaya-period surmise reasoned from the hill's mineral content.
• The date the monastery was raised to royal status. Both state sources record that it happened and that the name changed with it, and neither gives a year.
• The spelling and therefore the meaning of the principal image's name, where the Buddhism office differs from the tourism authority and the environment register.
• The image's material, and any measurement of the chedi. Neither is published by any source read.
• The visungkhamsima date and the sect. The national temple registry that would settle both answered with an access-denied page.
• Whether the scripture library's carved pediment is still legible, where two state sources disagree and only one of them is dated.
• The register's own coordinate for this monastery sits about 450 m from the coordinate the cultural environment register publishes for it. Both fall in Tambon Ra Haeng, so neither is obviously wrong, and this page uses the register's.

Wat Mani Banphot Worawihan: common questions

Where to go from here

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.