Thailand

One of the oldest and largest Buddhist temples in Bangkok, standing immediately south of the Grand Palace. Dating back to the Ayutthaya period, it was rebuilt and renamed Wat Phra Chetuphon by King Rama I between 1788 and 1801 and expanded by King Rama III from 1830. It is renowned for its 46-meter Reclining Buddha, 1,431 inscribed stone slabs inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, and its school of traditional Thai medicine and massage.

UNESCO Memory of the World (Epigraphic Archives of Wat Pho, 2011)2 Sanam Chai Road, Phra Borom Maha Ratchawang, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200

Photo: Philip Nalangan, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The most sacred royal Buddhist temple in Thailand (officially Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram), situated within the Grand Palace precinct on Rattanakosin Island in Bangkok, founded in 1782 and completed in 1784 by King Rama I. Built without residential monks' quarters, it enshrines the 66-centimeter Emerald Buddha (Phra Kaew Morakot) carved from a single block of green jade or jasper, alongside the golden Phra Si Rattana Chedi, the Phra Mondop scripture library, and 178 bays of Ramakien epic murals.

National historical monument of Thailand (registered by the Fine Arts Department in 1949)Na Phra Lan Road, Phra Borom Maha Ratchawang, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200

Photo: Original image: Ninara from Helsinki, Finland. Edit: TSP, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

A premier royal Theravada Buddhist monastery on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok Yai (Thonburi, Bangkok), originally the Ayutthaya-era temple Wat Makok before King Taksin designated it the royal chapel of Thonburi in 1768 and enshrined the Emerald Buddha here from 1779 to 1784. Its central spire (Phra Prang), rising about 81.85 meters (with sources citing between 67 and 82 meters), was begun under King Rama II and completed under King Rama III in 1851 as a cosmic Mount Meru encrusted with millions of colorful porcelain fragments and seashells.

First-class royal monastery of the highest grade (Ratchaworamahawihan), National historical monument of Thailand (1949)158 Thanon Wang Doem, Wat Arun, Bangkok Yai, Bangkok 10600 (158 ถนนวังเดิม แขวงวัดอรุณ เขตบางกอกใหญ่ กรุงเทพมหานคร)

Photo: Mastertongapollo, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The most sacred Buddhist pilgrimage site of northern Thailand (the ancient Lanna kingdom), perched at an elevation of about 1,073 meters on Mount Doi Suthep overlooking the Chiang Mai valley and founded in 1383 by King Kuena of the Mangrai dynasty to enshrine a shoulder-bone relic of the Buddha brought from Sukhothai by the monk Sumanathera. Linked to the legend of the white elephant that climbed the mountain before kneeling to pass away, the monastery is famed for its 306-step Naga serpent staircase, its 24-meter gold-plated octagonal Lanna stupa, and the 11-kilometer mountain road built in 1935 under the leadership of the revered monk Kruba Srivichai.

National historical monument of Thailand (1935), UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (2015)9 Mueang Chiang Mai District, Suthep, Chiang Mai 50200

Photo: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

The central and largest royal monastery of the ancient capital of Sukhothai, the cradle of Thai Buddhist civilization and art, founded in the late 13th century under King Sri Indraditya and reshaped into its definitive form in 1345 under King Mahathammaracha I (Lithai). Anchored by its signature lotus-bud main stupa (Phum Khao Bin) enshrining Buddha relics, flanked by eight subordinate towers on a shared platform, nearly 200 smaller chedis, and a stucco frieze of 168 disciples walking in circumambulation, it forms the heart of the Sukhothai Historical Park inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns, 1991)Mueang Kao, Mueang Sukhothai District, Sukhothai 64210

Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The supreme royal chapel inside the Ancient Palace of Ayutthaya (having no resident monks and serving as the direct architectural prototype for the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Phra Kaew, in Bangkok), converted from the original wooden palace grounds by King Borommatrailokkanat in 1448. The sanctuary is celebrated for its axial row of three towering Ceylonese bell-shaped stupas enshrining the royal ashes of Kings Borommatrailokkanat, Borommarachathirat III (built in 1492), and Ramathibodi II (built in 1529), and once housed a 16-meter standing Buddha sheathed in 286 ancient chang of pure gold (equivalent to roughly 171 to 343 kilograms depending on conversion scale) prior to the sack of 1767, forming the core of UNESCO World Heritage Site No. 576 inscribed in 1991.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Historic City of Ayutthaya, No. 576, 1991), National Historical Monument of Thailand (1935)Pratu Chai Subdistrict, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya District, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya 13000

Photo: Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The most celebrated riverside royal monastery of the Late Ayutthaya era on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, commissioned in 1630 by King Prasat Thong on the former residence plot of his late mother to dedicate filial merit to her memory while commemorating Siamese suzerainty over Cambodia. Designed as a three-dimensional Buddhist Mount Meru mandala inspired by Angkorian temple-mountains, the brick complex rises to a 35-meter central Prang flanked by four corner towers and encircled by eight chedi-crowned chapels (Meru Thit Meru Rai) linked by a cruciform gallery once lined with 120 black-and-gold seated Buddha statues facing the river.

Ayutthaya Historical Park landmark linked to UNESCO World Heritage Site No. 576 (1991), National Historical Monument of Thailand (1935)Ban Pom Subdistrict, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya District, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya 13000

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A monumental royal monastery standing at the exact geometric center of Chiang Mai's walled old city, begun in 1391 by King Saen Muang Ma of the Mangrai Dynasty to enshrine the royal ashes of his father King Kuena and enlarged in the mid-fifteenth century under King Tilokaraj to roughly 82 meters in height, making it the tallest masonry structure in ancient Lanna prior to the great earthquake of 1545. Its eastern stupa niche enshrined the sacred Emerald Buddha for eighty-three years (1468 to 1551), while its southeastern precinct shelters the revered Sao Inthakhin City Pillar Shrine protecting the spiritual destiny of the northern capital.

Third-Class Royal Monastery (Worawihan), National Historical Monument of Thailand (1935), UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (2015)103 Phra Pok Klao Road, Phra Singh Subdistrict, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50200 (103 ถนนพระปกเกล้า ตำบลพระสิงห์ อำเภอเมืองเชียงใหม่ จังหวัดเชียงใหม่)

Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The premier First-Class Royal Monastery within Chiang Mai's walled old city, founded in 1345 by King Pha Yu (fifth monarch of the Mangrai Dynasty) under the original name Wat Li Chiang Phra to enshrine the royal ashes of his father King Kham Fu. Renamed after receiving the revered Phra Buddha Sihing bronze icon in the late fourteenth century, the sanctuary anchors Chiang Mai's annual Songkran lustration processions and is celebrated for its gilded Viharn Lai Kham chapel with 1820s Lanna murals, its stucco-relief Ho Trai scripture library, and its sacred birth-year reliquary stupa for those born in the Year of the Dragon.

First-Class Royal Monastery (Woramahawihan, 1940), National Historical Monument of Thailand (1935), UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (2015)2 Samlan Road, Phra Singh Subdistrict, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50200 (2 ถนนสามล้าน ตำบลพระสิงห์ อำเภอเมืองเชียงใหม่ จังหวัดเชียงใหม่)

Photo: Stefan Fussan, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

The ancient mother sanctuary of the Mon Kingdom of Hariphunchai beside the Kuang River at the heart of Lamphun, established when Mon King Athittayaraj consecrated his own royal palace grounds to enshrine bodily relics of the Buddha in the eleventh to twelfth centuries (dated 1044 in traditional chronicles and mid-twelfth century in Mon epigraphy). Uniting nine centuries of Mon Dvaravati and classic Lanna sacred art, the compound centers on a gleaming 46-meter bronze-and-gold bell stupa enlarged in 1443 under King Tilokaraj (revered as the Lanna birth-year stupa for the Year of the Rooster), alongside the stepped-pyramid Dvaravati brick monument Suwanna Chedi and a colossal 1860 bronze gong.

First-Class Royal Monastery (Woramahawihan), National Historical Monument of Thailand (1935)Rop Mueang Nai Road, Nai Mueang Subdistrict, Mueang Lamphun District, Lamphun 51000

Photo: Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The tallest Buddhist stupa in Thailand (soaring 120.45 meters to its spire tip with a circular base gallery circumference of 235.50 meters), rising at the heart of the ancient Mon Dvaravati metropolis in Nakhon Pathom and traditionally revered as the earliest site where Emperor Ashoka's missionary elders Sona and Uttara introduced the Dhamma to Suvarnabhumi. Begun in 1853 by King Mongkut (Rama IV) as a colossal glazed-tile Ceylonese bell dome completely encasing the ancient ruined stupa within and completed in 1870 under King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), its northern ceremonial staircase enshrines King Vajiravudh's (Rama VI) towering standing Buddha Phra Ruang Rojanarit facing straight down the royal boulevard to Nakhon Pathom Railway Station.

Supreme First-Class Royal Monastery (Ratchaworamahawihan), National Historical Monument of Thailand (1935)27 Khwaeng Phra Pathom Chedi, Mueang Nakhon Pathom District, Nakhon Pathom 73000

Photo: Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

A celebrated royal monastery standing at the southeastern Odeon Circle gateway of Bangkok's Yaowarat Chinatown (originally founded by three Chinese merchant friends around 1832 under King Rama III as Wat Sam Chin or Wat Sam Chin Tai and renamed Wat Traimit Witthayaram on February 3, 1940). It enshrines the world's largest solid-gold statue, Phra Phuttha Maha Suwanna Patimakon, a thirteenth- to fourteenth-century Sukhothai masterpiece standing nearly four meters tall and weighing 5.5 metric tons of cast gold that lay disguised beneath plain lime stucco for nearly two centuries until a snapped crane sling revealed its gleaming interior on May 25, 1955.

Second-Class Royal Monastery (Worawihan, 1956), Guinness World Record holder for the largest solid-gold statue in the world661 Charoen Krung Road (Traimit Road), Talat Noi, Samphanthawong, Bangkok 10100 (661 ถนนเจริญกรุง แขวงตลาดน้อย เขตสัมพันธวงศ์ กรุงเทพมหานคร)

Photo: Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

A masterpiece of modern Thai Buddhist architecture in Bangkok's royal Dusit District, commissioned on March 1, 1899 by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) on the grounds of an older canal-side monastery when laying out nearby Dusit Palace. Designed on a symmetrical cruciform plan by royal architect Prince Narisara Nuwattiwong, its exterior columns, walls, guardian lions, and gleaming forecourt are clad in white Carrara marble imported from Italy beneath multi-tiered golden-amber Thai roofs and Florentine stained glass, enshrining the 1901 bronze Phra Phuttha Chinnarat directly above the interred royal ashes of King Rama V alongside a cloister gallery of 52 pan-Asian Buddha statues.

First-Class Royal Monastery (Ratchaworawihan), national architectural emblem minted on the reverse of Thailand's 5-Baht coin69 Rama V Road, Dusit Subdistrict, Dusit District, Bangkok 10300 (69 ถนนพระรามที่ 5 แขวงดุสิต เขตดุสิต กรุงเทพมหานคร)

Photo: BerryJ, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The largest walled Khmer Buddhist sanctuary on the Khorat Plateau, rising at the center of the ancient moated city of Vimayapura in Phimai District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province, at the northern terminus of the 225-kilometer Royal Khmer Highway from Angkor. Begun in the late eleventh century under King Jayavarman VI of the Mahidharapura dynasty and expanded through the reign of King Jayavarman VII, the complex is celebrated for its 28-meter white sandstone lotus-bud central tower (an architectural forerunner of Angkor Wat), its Tantric Vajrayana lintels of Trailokyavijaya, and its distinctive South-Southeast axial orientation (roughly 20 degrees east of due South, azimuth 159 to 160 degrees) facing toward Angkor.

Registered National Historical Monument of Thailand (1936), National Historical Park (1989), and UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (2004)Anantachinda Road, Nai Mueang Subdistrict, Phimai District, Nakhon Ratchasima 30110, Thailand

Photo: Takeaway, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

A Khmer Shaivite Hindu temple-mountain crowning the 383-to-402-meter rim of an extinct volcano in Chaloem Phra Kiat District, Buriram Province, built of rose-pink sandstone and dark laterite between the tenth and thirteenth centuries and brought to its classical zenith in the twelfth century by the royal kinsman and ascetic yogin Narendraditya during the era of King Suryavarman II. Restored through seventeen years of anastylosis (1971 to 1988) culminating in the celebrated 1988 repatriation of the Phra Narai Lintel, the sanctuary is famous for its lotus-post processional avenue, three five-headed Naga bridges, and the alignment of sunbeams straight through all fifteen axial doorways four times a year.

Registered National Historical Monument of Thailand (1935), National Historical Park (1988), and UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (2004, restructured dossier 2019)Moo 7, Ta Pek Subdistrict, Chaloem Phra Kiat District, Buriram 31110, Thailand

Photo: Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

A historic Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monastery founded around 1787 under King Rama I in the riverside port quarter of Talat Noi (Samphanthawong District, Bangkok), closely linked with Patriarch Thich Chan Hung and the royal recognition of the An Nam Nikaya (Annamnikaya) Sangha in Thailand. Bestowed the royal title Wat Upairajbumrung (Monastery Sustained by Two Monarchs) by King Rama V in honor of the patronage of Kings Rama IV and Rama V, the temple shelters an 1877 Bodh Gaya Bodhi tree gifted by King Rama V and enshrines the gilded incorrupt body of fourth abbot Venerable Thich Pho Sai (1900 to 1958).

Royally Patronized An Nam Nikaya (Annamnikaya) Historic Monastery and Registered Cultural Heritage Site of Bangkok864 Charoen Krung Road, Talat Noi Subdistrict, Samphanthawong District, Bangkok 10100, Thailand (864 ถนนเจริญกรุง แขวงตลาดน้อย เขตสัมพันธวงศ์ กรุงเทพมหานคร)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The national administrative headquarters and monastic school seat of the Vietnamese Mahayana An Nam Nikaya (Annamnikaya) Sangha across the Kingdom of Thailand, founded in 1841 under King Rama III on historic Ratchawong Road in Bangkok's Samphanthawong District and granted its royal Wisungkhamasima ordination boundary in 1857 under King Rama IV. Bearing its ancestral title Sac tu Hung Quoc Pho Phuc Tu alongside its royal Thai name Wat Kusolsamakorn (Monastery Where Wholesome Merit Gathers Like the Ocean), the raised-plinth ordination hall combines red-and-white tubular yin-yang roof tiles and a rear stupa with consecrated 1899 Siamese ordination stones and multi-story monastic school wings.

Supreme Administrative Seat and Monastic College of the An Nam Nikaya Sangha of Thailand97 Ratchawong Road, Samphanthawong Subdistrict, Samphanthawong District, Bangkok 10100, Thailand (97 ถนนราชวงศ์ แขวงสัมพันธวงศ์ เขตสัมพันธวงศ์ กรุงเทพมหานคร)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

A peaceful Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monastery of the An Nam Nikaya (Annamnikaya) order tucked inside historic Soi Phalit Phon linking Ratchawong Road with bustling Sampheng Market in Chakkrawat Subdistrict, Samphanthawong District, Bangkok. Founded around 1851 at the close of King Rama III's reign through the joint devotion of Vietnamese and Chinese merchants and bestowed the royal Thai name Wat Lokanukroh (Compassionately Succoring the World, translating its Vietnamese title Tu Te Tu) by King Rama V, the temple is remembered for the compassionate ministry of Venerable Binh Luong and prized for its ordination hall walls lined with thousands of hand-painted ceramic Buddha tiles.

Royally Chartered An Nam Nikaya (Annamnikaya) Historic Monastery of Old Sampheng, Bangkok123 Soi Phalit Phon, Ratchawong Road, Chakkrawat Subdistrict, Samphanthawong District, Bangkok 10100, Thailand (123 ซอยผลิตผล ถนนราชวงศ์ แขวงจักรวรรดิ เขตสัมพันธวงศ์ กรุงเทพมหานคร)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

A landmark Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monastery standing beside Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem at Saphan Khao (White Bridge) on Lan Luang Road in Dusit District, Bangkok, founded by Vietnamese settlers under King Rama III as Canh Phuoc Tu and bestowed the royal Thai name Wat Samananamborihan (Monastery Administering the Annamese Sangha) together with the Phra Kiao royal emblem by King Rama V on April 23, 1906. Long the abbatial seat of the late 13th Supreme Patriarch of the An Nam Nikaya (Narong Tinrien, 1927 to 2026), the temple displays Romanized Vietnamese and Thai inscriptions across its golden-glazed porch beam and enshrines the revered relics and portrait statue of healing abbot Venerable Nhat Dap Bao An (Luang Pho Bao Oeng).

Royally Named Principal Monastery of the An Nam Nikaya Sangha in Dusit District, Bangkok416 Lan Luang Road, Si Yaek Maha Nak Subdistrict, Dusit District, Bangkok 10300, Thailand (416 ถนนหลานหลวง แขวงสี่แยกมหานาค เขตดุสิต กรุงเทพมหานคร)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The historic parish sanctuary at the heart of Bangkok's Vietnamese Catholic village of Ban Yuan Samsen (Soi Mitrakham, Dusit District), founded in 1834 when King Rama III granted riverside land along Khlong Samsen to resettle Vietnamese Catholic families and named their community Mitrakham (Village of Friendship). Initiated in masonry in 1857 by Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix and consecrated in 1867 with a cream-and-rose paired-column Neo-Renaissance three-arched portico, star-vaulted Neo-Gothic nave, slender ridge belfry, and octagonal rear bell tower, the church safeguards a Florentine bronze sculpture of Christ Healing the Blind Bartimaeus purchased by King Rama V during his 1897 European tour and transferred to the parish on June 21, 1949, alongside living nineteenth-century Vietnamese melodic prayer chants.

Historic Vietnamese-Heritage Parish Church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok (founded 1834, consecrated 1867)94 Soi Mitrakham (Soi Samsen 11), Samsen Road, Wachiraphayaban Subdistrict, Dusit District, Bangkok 10300, Thailand (94 ซอยมิตตคาม ซอยสามเสน 11 ถนนสามเสน แขวงวชิรพยาบาล เขตดุสิต กรุงเทพมหานคร)

Photo: Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons