Wat Trangkhaphum Phutthawat

What the official record says

Where Wat Trangkhaphum Phutthawat 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.

The two state accounts differ on the ordination hall. The Fine Arts Department's register describes the registered building without dating it; the Trang Provincial Office of Buddhism says it was built in B.E. 2476, 11 by 18 meters. The register also records that the monastery moved to its present site in B.E. 2442, nine years after it was founded, which neither of the other accounts mentions.

The history of Wat Trangkhaphum Phutthawat

Kantang is the reason Trang exists in its modern form, and this monastery is part of the same decision. In B.E. 2436 Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahison Phakdi, better known as Khaw Sim Bee na Ranong, moved the provincial seat from Khuan Thani down to the river mouth at Kantang, where ships could come in. He was the governor who put rubber into southern Thailand and laid the railway that still ends at Kantang station, and when he moved the town he built it a monastery. It was called Wat Kantang, plainly, after the place.

The name it carries now was a gift. In B.E. 2455 the Supreme Patriarch, Prince Vajirañāṇavarorasa, came through on an inspection of the regional sangha, stayed here, decided the setting was unusually good, and gave it a new name: Wat Trangkhaphum Phutthawat. The monastery had moved to its present ground in B.E. 2442, and it then held about thirty-five rai. It holds about twenty-one now. The provincial Buddhism office is direct about where the rest went: neighbors moved onto it, planted it and built houses on it. That is a quiet sentence and it describes the single commonest thing that happens to Thai temple land.

The objects Phraya Ratsada brought with him are the reason people come. The principal image in the ordination hall is carved marble, a Maravijaya seated figure with a lap width of forty-three inches, with two marble disciples beside it, and in front of the hall a pair of marble lions and a pair of marble elephants of the same date and the same origin. Where that origin is depends on which part of the state is speaking. The Trang Provincial Office of Buddhism says Penang, carried by ship. The Fine Arts Department's Trang archives says Burma. Both are state publications, neither cites a document, and this page prints both.

The three marble images do not look like marble now, and the reason is a theft. The provincial office records that they were once stolen, the thieves believing there was gold in the head, and recovered. Afterwards a topknot and lengthened ears were added and the whole figure was painted gold to disguise what it was made of. The monastery also keeps a preaching throne painted with Thai designs that belonged to Luang Pu Lop, the first abbot, and which was a gift from King Chulalongkorn, together with a silver-mounted portrait of the King and a scripture cabinet from the same source, all kept in the abbot's quarters. In B.E. 2538, when a riot burned the Kantang district office down, the monastery served as the district office until a new one could be found — which is a fair summary of what a town monastery is for.

What you actually see

The registered ordination hall, which the Fine Arts Department describes as concrete-walled with a two-tier gable roof, a skirt roof carried right round the building, clay tile covering, porches front and back, and wooden louvre ventilation panels above the walls. The provincial Buddhism office dates it to B.E. 2476 and gives it as 11 by 18 meters.

The marble principal image, Maravijaya, lap width forty-three inches, with two marble disciples — now gilded over and fitted with an added topknot and lengthened ears after an attempted theft.

A pair of marble lions and a pair of marble elephants in front of the ordination hall, recorded as coming from the same place and the same date as the images, in B.E. 2436.

The preaching throne painted with Thai designs, recorded as a gift from King Chulalongkorn to Luang Pu Lop, the first abbot, together with a silver-mounted royal portrait and a scripture cabinet.

The pavilion of former abbots, ศาลาพระครูบริสุทธิศีลาจารย์สังฆปาโมกข์, holding likenesses of three previous abbots.

พระพุทธชัยมงคล at the front of the grounds: a walking Buddha in the attitude of bestowing blessing, yellow sandstone, 5.9 meters tall, with a pair of marble lions.

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.

• Where the marble images, lions and elephants came from. The Trang Provincial Office of Buddhism says Penang; the Fine Arts Department's Trang archives says Burma.
• When the registered ordination hall was built. The provincial office says B.E. 2476; the Fine Arts Department's register describes the building but gives it no date.
• Whether the monastery holds any royal grade. The provincial office's list of the province's important temples labels two of its three entries พระอารามหลวง and does not label this one, which is a confirmation of absence rather than a silence, but no instrument was located either way.
• The sect, which is recorded only in the National Office of Buddhism's temple register, and that register refused access again.
• How much land was lost and when. The provincial office records the fall from about thirty-five rai to about twenty-one without dating it.
• Visiting hours and any admission, which no official source publishes.

Wat Trangkhaphum Phutthawat: 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 Trang’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.