Wat Khao Angkhan: A temple with a view
Wat Khao Angkhan
The somewhat remote Wat Khao Angkhan is not exactly easy to reach. The Temple is a proverbial stone's throw from the much more famous Phanom Rung.
What Khao Angkhan is located just west of the village of Charoen Suk in the Chaloem Phra Kiat district, about 10 km south of Highway 24. Even the GPS sometimes seems to lose the north in the search for the exact location, but luckily there are still locals to guide the lost traveler back in the right direction. Via a concrete track that is not really optimally signposted, which at a certain point still seems to disintegrate in a busy quarry yard with a noisy crushing installation, you reach the top of the Khao Angkhan and the temple complex named after it. Just keep a cool head and drive straight ahead is the message.
When entering the temple grounds, one is immediately confronted with a shed in which a huge reclining Buddha of no less than 24 m long can be found. If you walk to the left, you will end up in the monastery complex and believe me, you will not be able to process your first impressions. After all, the architecture of these temple buildings cannot immediately be identified unequivocally and has something of a cacophony. Wat Khao Angkhan is a wondrous place built in an eclectic mix of Dvaravati, Khmer, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Burmese, Laotian, Lanna and Sukhothai architectural styles. The most eye-catching building on this site is undoubtedly the ubosot or ordination hall which contains elements of both Khmer and Sri Lankan origin.
Ubosot
The ubosot is lined by larger than life identical statues of seated Buddhas. In addition to the ubosot, there are several shrines in the forest, such as a Lanna shrine, a Thai temple with Nagatrap and a Chinese pagoda. For the critical Westerner it may all seem a bit kitschy and some buildings are in urgent need of a lick of paint, but this place exudes a special, subdued atmosphere, partly due to the total absence of hordes of tourists.
The legend of That Phanom has it that the ashes of the Buddha were enshrined here in the year 535 BC. If this were actually the case, this would be a very remarkable event, because according to most, the Buddha was still alive in that specific year… Nevertheless, the monk Phra Ajhan Panyawutthitho, who is famous in this region, when he started the construction of this monastery in 1977 , a number of ancient relics have been found that indicate that in the Dvaravati period, about the 8e in 9. e century of our era, a temple already stood on this site. These relics were stored in the ceiling of the ubosoth.
Sema stone
A number of sema stones, marker stones carved from basalt from the same period that were found during construction here, are placed near the ubosoth. These stones with bas-reliefs of lotus flowers or dharma wheels, among other things, are unique to Thailand. For Ajhan Panyawutthito, on the other hand, they provided proof that Buddhism was already practiced in the 8e century had reached this corner of the country.
Wat Khao Anghkan is located on the rim of Khao Angkhan, an extinct caldera volcano that was probably last active 700.000 years ago. From the air, this mountain resembles a Garuda, a mythical guardian spirit, raising its head to the south. The temple was built on the edge of the huge bowl-shaped crater typical of a caldera volcano. This crater was created at the time because part of this volcano collapsed into the magma chamber, which had emptied after a huge eruption. A panoramic viewpoint has been built next to the ubosot, which offers you an unforgettable view of this caldera and its distant surroundings. It is also the perfect place to get a breath of fresh air in the shade…
Chinese pagoda
Google maps did its job quite well for us, straight through the quarry and then up. Beautiful temple and an excellent view too. And indeed, few tourists (both farang and thai) to be seen.