A brick stupa in Lan Xang form and an ordination hall at Ban Nong Waeng in Amphoe Si That, registered together in 1999. Villagers clearing scrub in B.E. 2458 found the stupa on a deserted mound ringed by lotus-carved sema whose two lines of old script have since been lost.
วัดศรีธาตุประมัญชา · Wat Si That Pramancha
| Official name | วัดศรีธาตุประมัญชา — Wat Si That Pramancha |
|---|---|
| Where | Champi, Si That, Udon Thani |
| 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. 116, special part 7 ง, pp. 2–3, 22 January B.E. 2542 ประกาศกรมศิลปากร เรื่อง ขึ้นทะเบียนและกำหนดเขตที่ดินโบราณสถาน, made under section 7 of the Act B.E. 2504, announced ๒๗ กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๑ by นิคม มูสิกะคามะ as Director-General and published at เล่ม ๑๑๖ ตอนพิเศษ ๗ ง on ๒๒ มกราคม ๒๕๔๒. It is an eight-item instrument covering Nong Khai, Sakon Nakhon, Udon Thani and Nong Bua Lamphu; item 7 is โบราณสถานพระเจดีย์และพระอุโบสถ วัดศรีธาตุประมัญชา บ้านหนองแวง ตำบลจำปี อำเภอศรีธาตุ จังหวัดอุดรธานี พื้นที่โบราณสถานประมาณ ๑ ไร่ ๑ งาน ๗๐ ตารางวา. Read by eye from the scan, and the figure needed a second, magnified look: at page scale the ๗ reads as a ๓, and it was the register's own land parcel of 70 square wa that prompted the recheck. What is registered is the pair — the chedi and the ordination hall — and the register codes the row at status 5. |
| Coordinates | 16.964324, 103.186871 Fine Arts Department register, monument 0002496 |
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 department's dating of the chedi is stylistic and it says so: it calls the work Lan Xang and writes สันนิษฐานว่า, it is supposed, that its complete form would have resembled Phra That Ing Hang in Laos. That is a comparison, not a date, and no date for the original monument is stated anywhere read here.
Wat Si That Pramancha is at Ban Nong Waeng in Tambon Champi, in Amphoe Si That, in the southern quarter of Udon Thani province. It is not on any tourist route and the Tourism Authority of Thailand has no page for it. What it has is a clear, dated account of how a ruin became a temple again, written down by the Fine Arts Department, and one loss recorded inside that account that is worth the whole entry.
The department's history begins with the words เดิมเป็นวัดร้าง — formerly an abandoned temple. In B.E. 2458 people from Ban Phan Lam migrated here and set about clearing the ground. In the scrub they found a deserted mound with a that standing on it, and around the that a ring of stone sema carved as lotus flowers. On the sema were two lines of ancient script.
The department records the script and then, in a parenthesis, records that it is gone: สูญหาย. Nobody read it, or if they did nobody published what it said. Whatever those two lines carried — a date, a donor, a dedication, the name the place had before it was abandoned — went with them. This page cannot tell you when the that was built because the object that might have said so no longer exists.
The rest of the sequence is straightforward and dated. In B.E. 2462 a monk from Ban Tha Khantho came through on tudong, found the abandoned temple and stayed for the rains retreat. The villagers restored what was there and built a temple anew around it. The first ordination hall went up in B.E. 2464. In B.E. 2539 the Fine Arts Department's regional office at Khon Kaen excavated and restored the monument, and on 22 January B.E. 2542 the chedi and the ordination hall were registered together with a boundary of one rai, one ngan and seventy square wa.
The chedi itself is brick laid in earth mortar, square in plan, with a lower base built as a half-lotus base stepping up in tiers and, above that, the bell. The department calls the style Lan Xang and supposes — its own word — that the complete original would have looked like Phra That Ing Hang across the Mekong in Laos, whose body is a square block of three diminishing storeys finished with a lotus-bud finial. That is a comparison offered to explain a shape, not a date, and this page does not turn it into one.
One detail from the department's condition note tells you what a century and a half of village life does to a monument: the ground around the chedi now stands about a metre higher than its base. The restoration worked from what was still visible above that line. BAANLYY does not represent this temple and nothing here is legal or religious advice.
The chedi: brick laid in earth mortar, square, its lower part built as a half-lotus base stepping up in diminishing tiers, with the bell above it.
The ground around it, which the Fine Arts Department records as standing about a metre above the base of the chedi — the restoration worked from what showed above that.
The ordination hall, the sim, registered together with the chedi as a single monument in 1999.
The lotus-carved stone sema the villagers found ringing the mound in B.E. 2458. The two lines of ancient script the department records on them are lost.
The result of the B.E. 2539 excavation and restoration by the Fine Arts Department's Office of Archaeology and National Museums No. 7, Khon Kaen.
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 village temple. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before entering the ordination hall. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Ban Nong Waeng, Tambon Champi, Amphoe Si That, Udon Thani, in the south of the province towards the Nam Phong reservoir. The Fine Arts Department's register gives the monument's position as 16.964324 N, 103.186871 E. |
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.
Not established, and the object that might have told us is gone. The Fine Arts Department records that when villagers from Ban Phan Lam cleared this ground in B.E. 2458 they found a deserted mound with a that on it, ringed by stone sema carved as lotus flowers and bearing two lines of ancient script — and it records in the same sentence that the script is lost. The department's only chronological statement about the monument is that its style is Lan Xang and that its complete form was probably like Phra That Ing Hang in Laos. That is a comparison, not a date.
Two things together, as one monument: the chedi and the ordination hall. The instrument is ราชกิจจานุเบกษา เล่ม ๑๑๖ ตอนพิเศษ ๗ ง, published 22 January B.E. 2542, whose item 7 registers โบราณสถานพระเจดีย์และพระอุโบสถ วัดศรีธาตุประมัญชา บ้านหนองแวง ตำบลจำปี อำเภอศรีธาตุ with a boundary of about 1 rai 1 ngan 70 square wa. It was announced on 27 July B.E. 2541 by Nikhom Musikakhama as Director-General.
Because it is. The Fine Arts Department's condition note records that the earth around the monument stands about one metre above the base of the chedi, and that the restoration worked from the evidence still showing above that line. A century of village occupation raises a floor.
Only a resemblance, offered by the Fine Arts Department to explain the form. It describes the chedi as Lan Xang work and supposes — สันนิษฐานว่า — that its complete original shape would have been close to Phra That Ing Hang in Laos, whose body is a square block of three diminishing storeys with a lotus-bud finial. Nothing in the record connects the two beyond that comparison.
It is a working village temple in Amphoe Si That and there is nothing to say it is closed to visitors, but no state source read for this page publishes hours, a contact number or an admission charge. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has no page for it at all, and it is not inside a Fine Arts Department historical park. Dress as you would for any working wat.
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 Udon Thani’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.
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.