Wat Wang Daeng Tai (วัดวังแดงใต้), situated on the Pa Sak River about 20 km north of Ayutthaya city island in Tha Ruea District, is an active temple cherished for karma-release rituals and powerful protective amulets.
Its roots reach back to the late Ayutthaya period (late 17th–early 18th century), but the present temple was formally founded in 1777 AD during the reign of King Taksin the Great by Mon-speaking villagers forcibly resettled from Phichit after the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 AD.
Built with salvaged Ayutthaya bricks, it became a spiritual refuge for displaced communities.
In 1957 AD, King Bhumibol Adulyadej personally consecrated its boundary stones, elevating it to full royal temple status.
The heart of the complex is the old Ubosot Maha Udom, a late-Ayutthaya brick hall (partially roofless until restored in 2012) that houses a revered 200-year-old Subduing Mara Buddha image used for karmic-unblocking ceremonies. Faint Unalom yantras still trace the walls.
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Wat Chantaburi, once known in local records as Wat Lao or Wat Yuan, stands on the western bank of the Pa Sak River in what was once the heart of old Saraburi, the original settlement that existed long predated the modern provincial town.
Although the temple received its formal name and wisungkhamasima boundary during the reign of King Chulalongkorn in the 1890s AD, its principal structure, the brick ubosot, dates from much earlier.
Construction of that ordination hall began around 1833 AD, in the reign of King Rama III, when families of Lao Yuan people (descendants of migrants forcibly relocated from the Vientiane region and the old kingdom of Lan Xang after the suppression of the Anouvong rebellion in 1828 AD) were resettled along the Pa Sak to cultivate rice and dig irrigation canals.
The ubosot is built entirely of small, dark-red handmade bricks laid in lime mortar and raised on a low laterite platform to guard against river floods. It displays the graceful sweeping rooflines and restrained ...
Prasat Ban Prasat, an 11th-century Khmer hospital temple (arokayasala) in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand, stands as a rare surviving example of King Jayavarman VII’s compassionate infrastructure.
Built around 1186–1200 in classic Bayon style, the laterite complex features a single eastward-facing tower of pink sandstone on a raised platform, accompanied by a rectangular library to the southeast and enclosed by a moat, standard layout for the 102 chapels of healing the king established across his empire.
Dedicated to the Bodhisattva Lokesvara, the sanctuary originally housed a radiant Buddha image sheltered by the naga Mucalinda, symbolizing enlightenment and protection. A nearby reservoir (baray) supplied water for medicinal use, while the site served as both clinic and rest house for pilgrims traveling the ancient road from Angkor to Phimai. Inscriptions, though lost, likely mirrored those at other arokayasalas, invoking healing and royal merit.
Abandoned after the Khmer Empire’s ...
Sing Buri Province, along the fertile banks of the Chao Phraya River in central Thailand, traces its origins to the ancient Mon-Khmer settlements that flourished during the Dvaravati period, later flourishing under the Ayutthaya Kingdom as a strategic riverine outpost.
The name “Sing Buri” itself derives from local folklore: a mythical lion (singha) spirit is said to have guarded the area, mating with a human woman and fathering a child named Singhapahu, whose lineage symbolically founded the city. This blend of myth and history infuses the region with pride.
Wat Phra Non Chakkrasi Worawihan, a third-class royal temple perched along the ancient Chakra Sri River (now Khlong Bang Ton Pho) in central Sing Buri, embodies the province’s deep pre-Ayutthaya roots, predating the kingdom’s founding in 1351 CE and tying into legends of the lost city of Singh Puri, established around 1107 during the Dvaravati era (7th–11th centuries).
Originally known simply as Wat Phra Non, it was renamed to ...
