Wat Rai Khing, this temple is really worth a detour
Wat Rai Khing (Watercolorful / Shutterstock.com)
In the years that I now live in Thailand, many temples passed the review. There are temples and temples, from simple and quiet to lavish and busy. The reason is usually easy to guess, one temple has once housed a holier monk and therefore brings more luck than another house of worship.
My view of Thai religious life is somewhere between humor and pity. Especially when I look at the thousands of roosters, zebras and soldiers that are usually displayed in the forecourt of the temple.
When visiting Nakhon Pathom, known for the largest chedi in Thailand and the surrounding area, it was suggested to view the Wat Rai Khing. Normally, such a plan can count on little support on my part. After all, one temple looks suspiciously like the other, doesn't it? The drive from Hua Hin to Nakhon Pathom was necessary because the friend and her son are both registered in a family book there and therefore had to vote in their own neighbourhood. Since it seemed excessive to travel the 170 kilometers to Nakhon Pathom only to tick 'yes' or 'no', I agreed.
Luang Phor Wat Rai Khing (M3nizz / Shutterstock.com)
Wat Rai Khing is just over 20 kilometers from Nakhon Pathom; from Bangkok it is 32. That doesn't seem like much, but the traffic jam to the temple started just outside Nakhon Pathom.
The temple is, as I have seen with my own eyes, definitely worth a detour / visit. That's what the thousands of Thai people I met there think too. My goodness, what a crowd. There were at least a hundred people waiting in line for the blessing by a monk and elsewhere it was also very busy. Remarkable is the absence of foreigners. In the time I spent here I was the only farang. The Thai present were not surprised by my presence. In fact, I just felt like air.
The associated monastery must have been founded in 1791, after the discovery of a floating Buddha statue in the adjacent river Tha Chin. Tradition trumps logic here, because the large bronze statue in Chiang Saen style doesn't seem really floatable. But it's a nice story.
(Chakkrit Wiangkham / Shutterstock.com)
The temple is located on the Tha Chin River, where thousands of Sawai fish (a type of large catfish) wait for the many loaves of bread that visitors dump into the guzzling basin. The loaves are available on site for a fee and are baked especially for this purpose. You can also be transported by boat to a floating market here.
Of course there is a large garden (with artificial grass) on the temple grounds. Funny is the pond with large koi carp. You can feed them from a baby bottle with teat. There is a large hole in the teat. You put it in the mouth of a random koi…..
Most temples take in dogs, Rai Khing, does that with cats. They live in a separate building. There are beautiful specimens among them.
Wat Rai Khing – Tambon Rai Khing, Amphoe Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom. Open daily from 08.00am to 16.00pm.
About this blogger
- Almost 20 years ago, journalist Hans Bos moved to Bangkok. Almost from the beginning, he was involved in the birth of Thailandblog. As a journalist, he worked for Limburg newspapers and for the travel trade journals of what was once called Elsevier. Hans (76) has lived in Hua Hin for 14 years, with his wife Raysiya and daughter Lizzy. He was secretary and vice-chairman of the Dutch association in Hua Hin and Cha Am for about nine years.
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I will certainly not visit this temple, but I do know what Wat Rai Khing means. วัดไร่ขิง The Temple of the Ginger Fields.
Forget. Wat Rai Khing high, falling, rising tone.
Don't be put off by the reported crowds in the temple and on the roads from Bangkok to Nakhon
Pathom.
Only on Sundays and holidays there is a lot of traffic on the roads because of the visits to Cha am and Hua hin by the residents of Bangkok.
And so it is also busy in the Wat of Rai khing on Sundays and public holidays.
Fr greetings lung Kees Raiking