The relic-shrine of old Mueang Tak, on the west bank of the Ping: a square chedi of tradition now encased in a gilded copy of the Shwedagon, and beside it the wish-granting image that drew the crowds.
วัดพระบรมธาตุ · Wat Phra Borommathat
By the BAANLYY Editorial Team · Last checked 2 November 2026
| Official name | วัดพระบรมธาตุ — Wat Phra Borommathat |
|---|---|
| Where | Ko Taphao, Ban Tak, 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. 114, special part 87 ngor, 29 September B.E. 2540, page 2 — a Fine Arts Department announcement registering ancient monuments and fixing their land boundaries The register codes this monument status 5, registered with a declared land boundary, and that code was read firsthand off the department's own map service. The instrument itself was not opened: the gazette's legacy document path returns a page that parses into nonsense, so the volume, part, page and date come from the Fine Arts Department's own index of its gazette publications, which tabulates them and links the file, and from the research database, which gives the same volume, part and date independently. The index's title string for the instrument is truncated before it reaches Tak, so the department's own wording confirming that this monastery is in it could not be read. The declared area is not published by either source and is not stated here. One further caution: a search engine returned a fragment of this instrument appearing to pair an item number with an area of about 2 rai 3 ngan 32 square wa, but the fragment's own internal order puts the item under a different district heading from the one every other source gives, so it reads as non-contiguous text joined by the search engine and no area is carried from it. |
| Coordinates | 17.061373, 99.043662 Fine Arts Department register, monument layer, monument 0003878; put through the register's subdistrict polygon layer, which returns Ko Taphao (630205) in Ban Tak (6302), the subdistrict and district the monument's text record states. The research database publishes its own independent coordinate of 17.061459 and 99.043993, 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.
No register, gazette entry or inscription read in this run gives a founding year. What the record gives is a restoration, a visungkhamsima date and a century range, and the only year attached to the foundation sits in a field the research database itself labels as legend. A separate scholarly proposal, which the database reports with the hedge that some academics have suggested it, places the monastery as early as the 18th Buddhist century on the strength of a Sukhothai-period chedi standing nearby rather than on anything found here. Note also that the database is internally inconsistent by a century: its age field says 19th Buddhist century where its prose reports the proposal as 18th.
This was the town. Before Tak moved about 30 km south to Tambon Rahaeng, where the modern city stands, the old settlement sat on the west bank of the Ping, and the National Office of Buddhism's provincial office states plainly that the monastery occupies the ground of Mueang Tak Kao. The monument the register calls Mueang Tak Kao is a separate entry with its own id, and its point sits a few dozen meters from this one. So the monastery is not near the old town; it is in it.
What stands on the mound now is the second chedi, and the first one is inside it. The Tak provincial office records that the abbot Phra Khru Phithak Phra Borommathat, Thong Yu, made the pilgrimage to the Shwedagon in Rangoon and then built a chedi in its likeness over the existing one, gilded. The research database puts his abbacy between B.E. 2475 and 2512 and adds, with its own hedge, that the new work is thought to encase the old. What you now see described in the record as an octagonal Lanna-style chedi faced in brass-copper alloy, ringed by sixteen small chedis and twelve niches of Buddha images, is therefore a Burmese idea built by a Thai abbot over a stupa the chronicle calls square. Nobody publishes a height for it, which is unsurprising: the thing being measured is a shell.
The crowds come for something smaller. In the ordination hall sits Luang Pho Than Chai, brick and stucco in the subduing-Mara posture, lap width 32 inches, lacquered and gold-leafed, and the provincial office attributes the account of its making to a named abbot speaking of what he saw as a junior monk: a previous abbot consulted the lay congregation, the congregation dressed in white, and the image was finished one day and one night before its consecration — ทันใจ, in the nick of time, which is where the name comes from. The office sets out the offering rule as well, and it is specific: bananas, oranges, seasonal fruit, and no meat of any kind inside the consecrated boundary, boiled eggs alone excepted. The Ministry of Tourism records the monastery as the birth-year shrine for those born in the Year of the Horse.
The monastery also had a museum, and the reason it is shut is the kind of detail a guide should carry. The research database records that it was built in B.E. 2544 and 2545 to hold wooden Buddha images, scripture chests and cabinets, Sangkhalok ware, old weapons, old coins and household objects, and that it was open freely until a theft of Buddha images late in B.E. 2548, after which the temple closed it. It now opens only on prior arrangement with someone on hand to watch over it. The ordination hall around Luang Pho Than Chai is dated by the database to B.E. 2494 at 12 by 20 meters, with carved wooden doors, gilded window panels of scenes from the Buddha's life, and naga at the head of the stairs.
The gilded chedi on the mound — described in the record as octagonal, Lanna in style, faced in brass-copper alloy, with sixteen small chedis around it and twelve niches holding Buddha images — built in the likeness of the Shwedagon over an earlier stupa.
Luang Pho Than Chai in the ordination hall: brick and stucco, subduing-Mara posture, a lap width of 32 inches, lacquered and covered in gold leaf.
The ordination hall itself, recorded at 12 by 20 meters and dated to B.E. 2494, with carved wooden doors, a wooden pediment and gable, gilded carved window panels of scenes from the Buddha's life, and naga at the stair head.
The old high-ceilinged vihara, double-height with air slots all round it, holding a gilded stucco Buddha image, and a second older wooden vihara in the grounds with carved decoration.
The sermon hall at 8.5 by 16 meters, built B.E. 2467, and the prayer hall at 6.5 by 12 meters, built B.E. 2523.
The closed museum building of B.E. 2544 to 2545, which holds wooden images, scripture chests and cabinets, Sangkhalok ware, old weapons and coins, and which opens only by arrangement after a theft in late B.E. 2548.
The elephant-figure divination, where the record states that men lift with the little finger and women with the ring finger.
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 working monastery, so shoulders and knees covered and footwear off inside the halls. The offering rule here is published and worth following: fruit — bananas and oranges are named — and no meat of any kind inside the consecrated boundary, with boiled eggs the one exception. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | On the west bank of the Ping in Tambon Ko Taphao, on the Ban Tak to Mae Ramat road, about 30 km north of the modern city of Tak. The research database gives two routes: highway 1107 for about 35 km then left onto highway 1175 for about 1 km, or highway 1 at kilometer 442 into Amphoe Ban Tak across the Ping bridge, right past Wat Tha Na, then left at the junction for 200 m. Chedi Yutthahatthi stands opposite. |
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 record will not give a founding year. The research database's archaeological-age field runs from the 19th Buddhist century to the present; its registration and restoration dates are B.E. 2440 for the restoration of an abandoned site, 8 February B.E. 2492 for the visungkhamsima, and B.E. 2540 for the Fine Arts Department's survey and registration. The one foundation year in circulation sits in a field the database labels as legend age.
In intention, yes, and the state source says so directly. The National Office of Buddhism's Tak provincial office records that the abbot Thong Yu went to venerate the Shwedagon in Rangoon and then built a chedi like it over the old one. What the research database describes standing there today is octagonal and Lanna in style, so the result is not a straight copy.
Because it was finished just in time. The provincial office records that the image was completed one day and one night before its consecration ceremony, and that the lay congregation named it Phra Chao Than Chai for it. Than chai means in the nick of time, and the name has since attached to the practice of asking it for things.
No. The Tak provincial office states the rule plainly: offerings are bananas, oranges and seasonal fruit, meat offerings of every kind are forbidden, and they must not be brought inside the consecrated boundary at all. Boiled eggs are the single exception it allows.
Not as a matter of course. The research database records that it was open freely until Buddha images were stolen from it late in B.E. 2548, after which the temple closed it, and that it now opens only when someone asks to see it and a member of the temple can be there.
No reliable clock hours are published by a state source. The Ministry of Tourism's directory is the only one that gives times and its field is inconsistent, showing an overnight window every day while marking the site closed — the same inverted window it shows on four unrelated Tak entries. Its separate note does say the monastery opens 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.