The one-line version: Chai Nat punches well above a province of 313,759 people on heritage, and the provincial motto is a working itinerary — Luang Pu Suk, the Chao Phraya Dam, the Bird Park and the white pomelo. What we will not do here is repeat the numbers everyone else repeats: the Bird Park's founding year, its acreage, its species count and its admission fees all trace back to sources that flag themselves as uncited or unofficial, so this page carries the aviary's measured dimensions and nothing else.
What there is to see
| Place | Where | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| Chao Phraya Dam (เขื่อนเจ้าพระยา) | Sapphaya district, at the Khung Bang Krabian bend | The first large diversion dam built in Thailand and the barrage the entire lower Chao Phraya depends on. Sixteen sluice bays of 12.50 metres with 7.50-metre radial steel gates, a navigation lock 14 by 170.50 metres on the right abutment passable by large vessels, a seven-metre roadway across the crest with a 20-tonne limit, and an emergency spillway 10 metres by 1,000 on the left upstream embankment. It diverts water to roughly 5.7 million rai — about 11,600 square kilometres across seventeen provinces — through five main canals. Maximum discharge is around 3,300 cubic metres a second, but releases are held at or below 2,500 to protect low-lying riverside areas downstream. Tens of thousands of whistling ducks gather above the dam, particularly in December. |
| Chai Nat Bird Park (สวนนกชัยนาท) | Khao Tha Phra, Mueang Chai Nat district | The Chai Nat Provincial Administrative Organisation runs it, and the headline structure is genuinely large: an aviary net 24 metres high, 120 wide and 240 long, spanning from the Khao Phlong hillside down onto flat ground, which the town municipality describes as the largest aviary in Asia. Separate cages hold species that cannot be co-housed — hawks, adjutant storks and nocturnal birds. There is a fish museum inside, funded under a provincial development budget in 1995. The Space Water Park within the park closed in 2020, was renovated at a budget of over six million baht and reopened on 25 January 2025, though the robot slider stayed closed on safety grounds. |
| Wat Thammamun Worawihan (วัดธรรมามูลวรวิหาร) | East bank of the Chao Phraya at the foot of Khao Thammamun, about 8km upriver from town | A royal temple, and the province's guardian temple since the Ayutthaya period — some historians believe it was founded in the reign of Phaya Lithai of Sukhothai, and the source we read presents that as belief rather than established fact, so we do too. It enshrines Luang Pho Thammachak, a standing Buddha in the pang ham yat 'forbidding the relatives' posture with a dharmachakra on the raised palm: that wheel is what gives the image its name and it is the device carried on the provincial seal. The style is Ayutthaya blended with Sukhothai, with sema stones set around; the ubosot is described as red Tavoy-style with Ayutthaya-period carving. The river frontage here was historically a major boat-racing venue drawing crews from Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Suphan Buri and Nakhon Sawan. |
| Wat Phra Borommathat Worawihan (วัดพระบรมธาตุวรวิหาร) | Tambon Chai Nat, Mueang Chai Nat district | Formerly Wat Phra That and also called Wat Hua Mueang, founded in the era of Khmer power in the Chao Phraya basin. Its chedi enshrines relics of the Buddha, and it is a sacred site used for royal Buddhabhisek consecration rites; the water in front of the temple is one of the sources of holy water for the oath-of-allegiance rite. The Phra Wihan Kao Hong, a nine-bay vihara presumed built with the chedi, contains a naturally-flowing sacred well described as over 700 years old. The provincial Buddhism office is explicit that there is no evidence of who built the chedi and records the attribution to King Ashoka's missionaries as legend — so we name no founder and no construction date. |
| Chai Nat Muni National Museum (พิพิธภัณฑสถานแห่งชาติ ชัยนาทมุนี) | Inside the grounds of Wat Phra Borommathat, Moo 6, tambon Chai Nat 17000 · 0 5640 5621 | Under the Fine Arts Department's Office of Fine Arts Region 4 Lopburi, on a site of 3 rai 45 square wa. It grew from the private collection of Phra Chainat Muni (Nuam Sutatto), the province's former ecclesiastical head and abbot of Wat Phra Borommathat, who donated it to the nation. The Fine Arts Department built the museum in 1966 and opened it to the public in 1969, naming it in his memory. One practical warning: the museum's own website is stale — its most recent news item dates from 2016 — so treat opening hours and admission as unknown and check before travelling. |
| Sankhaburi old town / Mueang Phraek Si Racha | Tambon Phraek Si Racha, Sankhaburi district (15.0498N, 100.1621E) | The ancient city where Chai Nat began, also called Mueang San, on the Chao Phraya and Noi basins with Wat Mahathat near its geographic centre. Reached by taking Highway 340 south from Chai Nat town about eighteen kilometres to the Sankhaburi junction, then left. Read the registration status carefully, because most write-ups get it wrong: the ancient city as a whole is NOT registered as a national monument. Only individual monuments within it are — Wat Tha Sao (ruined), Wat Song Phi Nong, Wat Phraya Phraek, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Kaeo and Wat Chan. The archaeological database also notes the city overall is not developed as a tourist site, so this is a drive between temples rather than a visitor attraction. |
| Wat Pak Khlong Makham Thao (วัดปากคลองมะขามเฒ่า) | Wat Sing district, at the mouth of Khlong Makham Thao on the Tha Chin | The temple that brings most Thai pilgrims to this province. It was the residence of Luang Pu Suk, the amulet-making monk who is the first name in the provincial motto, and the murals inside the ubosot were painted by the hand of Prince Abhakara Kiartivongse, Krom Luang Chumphon Khet Udomsak — Luang Pu Suk's most famous disciple and the founding father of the Royal Thai Navy. That makes this the province's single most significant heritage asset in terms of what is actually on the walls. Its mondop is described as uniquely built and attributed to Luang Pu Suk. The name, 'old tamarind', comes from a legend about a centuries-old tree in front of the temple that sank when the bank collapsed, and the source frames it as legend rather than record. |
| Sapphaya old police station & the old-market community | Sapphaya district, on the Chao Phraya bank | Built in 1901 — R.S. 120, in the reign of Rama V — as a single-storey wooden hip-roofed building raised on stilts, with teng-wood posts, mixed-hardwood walls and a takhian-wood floor. It is described as the oldest surviving police station in Thailand, it won an ASA architectural conservation award in 2018, and it has been restored as the Sapphaya Local History Museum. Beside it the riverside old-market community runs the Talat Green Dee night market, which is 100 per cent foam-free — bamboo tubes, coconut shells and banana leaf — and where visitors and vendors alike are encouraged to wear Thai dress. |
| Khao Phlong / Wat Pathom Thetsana Aranyawasi | Moo 4, tambon Khao Tha Phra, Mueang Chai Nat district | The hill the Bird Park's aviary net is anchored to, and the temple on it, formally Wat Pathom Thetsana Aranyawasi and commonly Wat Khao Phlong. We publish the location and nothing else: the government tourism directory entry for it self-declares that its data is not official and lists opening hours of 18:00 to 02:00, seven days a week, which is not plausible for a hilltop temple and is almost certainly a data-entry error. Everything else circulating about the site — the chedi's contents, the Buddha image, the view, the hours — appeared only in search summaries we could not verify. |
Festivals, with sourced dates
| Festival | Dates | Where | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straw Bird Festival (มหกรรมหุ่นฟางนก) | 19 February – 1 March 2026 (41st edition) | Chalermphrakiat Stadium and the riprap embankment in front of the Chai Nat Provincial Hall | The province's signature event, announced by the Chai Nat public relations office in February 2026. The programme runs a cultural-procession competition entered by all eight districts, a hi-tech straw-bird contest, a beautiful straw-bird contest, a bird-mobile contest and OTOP sales. The press conference was held at the Bird Park and led by the deputy governor alongside the TAT Lopburi Office director and the provincial administrative organisation president. |
| White Pomelo Festival (งานวันส้มโอขาวแตงกวา) | 28 August – 7 September 2025 was the 41st edition. No 2026 date announced at the time of writing | The riprap embankment in front of the Chai Nat Provincial Hall | The celebration of som-o khao taeng kwa, the province's white pomelo, which carries a registered Geographical Indication with 47 orchards meeting the standard and which appears in the provincial motto. The published pattern is late August to early September — the 40th edition ran 6–16 September 2024 — but no 2026 date had been announced when we checked, and we are not going to print a date the province has not. Note that the two festivals run independent edition counters: the Straw Bird Festival's 41st is 2026 and the Pomelo Festival's 41st was 2025. |
What we could not verify, and are not publishing
More than usual, and most of it about the Bird Park. We publish no founding year, area, species count or cage count for it: the encyclopaedia sentence carrying those figures flags itself with a citation-needed tag, and one widely-repeated aviary area is arithmetically incompatible with the town municipality's own verified 120-by-240-metre dimensions. We publish no admission fees or opening hours for the Bird Park, for Khao Phlong or for the national museum — the museum's own site has not been updated since 2016, and the government tourism directory entry for Khao Phlong self-declares as unofficial and lists implausible hours. We publish no founder or construction date for the Wat Phra Borommathat chedi, because its own provincial Buddhism office says no evidence exists and records the traditional attribution as legend. We give no completion year for the dam — two official sources say 2499 and 2500 BE — and lead on the opening date they agree on. And we publish no visitor numbers, hotel counts or tourism revenue for Chai Nat at all: the Ministry of Tourism and Sports issues the provincial table only as a spreadsheet, the National Statistical Office's tourism page no longer resolves, and the provincial tourism office's own site timed out.
Frequently asked
What is Chai Nat actually known for?Four things, and the provincial motto lists them in order: Luang Pu Suk, the Chao Phraya Dam, the Bird Park, and the white khao taeng kwa pomelo. Luang Pu Suk was the amulet-making monk of Wat Pak Khlong Makham Thao in Wat Sing district, whose most famous disciple was the Prince of Chumphon — who painted the murals inside that temple's ubosot himself. The Chao Phraya Dam at Sapphaya is the first large diversion dam built in Thailand, opened by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit on 7 February 1957, and it still regulates the river for everything downstream. The Bird Park's aviary, 24 metres high by 120 by 240 and anchored to the Khao Phlong hillside, is described by the town municipality as the largest in Asia. And the pomelo has a registered Geographical Indication and its own festival on the embankment in front of the provincial hall.
Is the Chao Phraya Dam worth visiting?For anyone interested in how Thailand works, yes — it is the piece of infrastructure the entire lower Chao Phraya basin depends on, and you can drive across it. The dam was royally initiated as an idea by Rama V in 1903, shelved during the First World War, re-proposed by the Royal Irrigation Department in 1948, funded on a World Bank loan negotiated in February 1950 at a total budget of 1,160 million baht, had its foundation stone laid on 6 February 1953 with Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram presiding, was visited by the King and Queen during construction on 27 September 1955, and was opened by them on 7 February 1957. Come in December if you can: the sources describe tens of thousands of whistling ducks gathering on the water above it. One honesty note — official sources disagree about the dam's overall dimensions and its power output, and we set those conflicts out rather than picking a set.
Why do you give two different sets of measurements for the dam?Because two official Thai sources give two different sets and we are not qualified to referee them. The Royal Irrigation Department's record, as published by the National Archives under the Fine Arts Department, describes a reinforced-concrete barrage 237.50 metres long and 16.5 metres high with a 300-kilowatt hydro plant, irrigating about 5,700,000 rai. EGAT describes a clay-core earth-fill dam 263 metres long and 16 metres high, with a crest level of 19 metres above sea level, a catchment of 119,000 square kilometres, storage of 144.70 million cubic metres and a 6-megawatt power plant generating around 60 million kilowatt-hours a year. Those are not small discrepancies, and the 300-kilowatt-versus-6-megawatt gap is a factor of twenty. Both sources agree on the sixteen 12.50-metre sluice bays and on the 7 February 1957 opening, and those are the figures we lead with.
When are Chai Nat's festivals?The Straw Bird Festival ran its 41st edition from 19 February to 1 March 2026, at Chalermphrakiat Stadium and the riprap embankment in front of the Provincial Hall, with a cultural procession entered by all eight districts. The White Pomelo Festival ran its 41st edition from 28 August to 7 September 2025 on the embankment in front of the Provincial Hall; the 40th ran 6–16 September 2024, so late August to early September is the established pattern — but no 2026 date had been announced when we checked and we do not print one we cannot source. Watch for the edition-number trap if you are researching this yourself: the two festivals count their editions independently, so a 41st edition in 2026 and a 41st edition in 2025 are two different events, not a contradiction.
Is there anything to do in Chai Nat beyond a day trip?Honestly, this is a province with a strong day and weekend, and a quiet everything else. The dam, the Bird Park, the two royal temples, the national museum and the Sapphaya riverside are a comfortable two days from Bangkok or Nakhon Sawan, and the two festivals are worth planning around. What Chai Nat does not have is the density of things a resident works through over months — no national park headquarters, no beach, no mountain, no significant nightlife, and an ancient city at Sankhaburi that its own archaeological database says is undeveloped for visitors. We also could not verify a single visitor number, hotel-room count or admission fee for this province from any source we could open, which is itself a fair indication of the scale of the tourism economy here.
Planning a look at Chai Nat?
See the areas guide first, then talk to BAANLYY about staying longer.
Sources & References
- Chao Phraya Dam, Sapphaya district — National Archives of Thailand, Fine Arts Department
- Chao Phraya Dam and hydro plant — EGAT
- Tourism and sports — Chai Nat Town Municipality
- Wat Phra Borommathat Worawihan — Chai Nat Provincial Office of Buddhism
- Chai Nat Muni National Museum — Fine Arts Department
- Mueang Phraek Si Racha ancient city — SAC Archaeological Sites Database
- 41st Straw Bird Festival, 19 Feb – 1 Mar 2026 — Chai Nat Public Relations Office
- 41st White Pomelo Festival, 28 Aug – 7 Sep 2025 — Chai Nat Public Relations Office
- Tourism Authority of Thailand
- Royal Irrigation Department (RID), Thailand
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
General information, not travel advice. Opening hours, admission fees and festival dates change every year and several of the sources for this province are years out of date — confirm directly before travelling. Hero photograph via Pexels.
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Last updated 19 August 2026 · Last reviewed 19 August 2026