Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan is the most famous Buddhist Temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat. This temple is well known because of it’s unusual arrangement of chedi towers, and other artefacts, and the important role it played in the spread of Theravada Buddhism in Thailand.
About Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan
Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan has a long history. Exactly how long is a matter debate.
Early History
Local belief is that a temple was established on the site of the current more modern temple in 291 AD. According to legend Prince Thanakuman and Queen Hem Chala visited Nakhon Si Thammarat with a tooth retrieved from the funeral pyre of the Lord Buddha. The tooth along with other relics were enshrined within a chedi tower.
Information about exactly who Prince Thanakuman and Queen Hem Chala were is vague. Legend is that they initially brought the tooth relic from India to Sri Lanka because of a war going on at the time in India. Thailand’s close religious links with Sri Lankan Buddhism are based in part on the tooth relic subsequently being brought to Thailand from Sri Lanka.
Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si ThammaratConstruction of the Modern Temple
Key components of the modern day Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan were constructed by King Sri Dhammasokaraja in the early 13th Century shortly after the collapse of the Srivijaya Empire.
From the 7th Century to the early 13th Century much of Southern Thailand was under the control of the Srivijaya Empire, which began in Sumatra and spread across large parts of South East Asia. Many of the design features of Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan are reminiscent of temples in Sri Lanka, and the construction of the temple is likely to be an explicit rejection of the influence of the Srivijaya Empire, and the form of Buddhism they believed in. Sri Lanka is closely associated with Theravada Buddhism which eventually Thailand adopted as its state religion.
Chedi at the Temple
The most striking thing about Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan is its 78 metre tall white chedi tower, surrounded by a 173 smaller chedi. This ‘sea of white towers’ occupies a substantial part of the temple, and is surrounded on all sides by a high wall.
The tallest of the chedi, known as the Phra Borommathat Chedi, is the most important part of the temple. The chedi has a classic Sri Lankan design, with a bulbous base and a narrower pointed spire on top, which is capped in over 600 kilogrammes of gold and encrusted with precious stones. More importantly, the Phra Borommathat Chedi is believed to be built over the original chedi from 291 AD housing the tooth relic.
The smaller chedi are arranged symmetrically around the base of the larger chedi. The effect is visually very impressive, and there are no other temples in Thailand which have such a large group of chedi towers arranged in this way. The temple is unique in this respect.
Many chedi at Wat Phra Mahathat WoramahawihanOther Points of Interest
Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan is a large temple covering over 50,000 square metres and there are many points of interest besides the chedi towers. These include:
- A series of very old statues, some believed to be of Prince Thanakuman and Queen Hem Chala and others which no one is entirely sure who they represent.
- A magnificent ordination hall, built in 1628 in the distinctive Ayutthaya style of temple architecture.
- A small museum with a wide range of curiosities and artefacts, including the backbone of a whale.
- The courtyard containing the chedi towers is ringed by a covered area containing hundreds of statues of the Lord Buddha including at least one from the 13th or 14th Century.
- A chapel with bronze statues of two princes of the old empire which used to control the area.
Location of Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan
Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan is 21 km by road to the south of Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport.
