Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen
300, Ratchamongkhon Prasat Alley, Pak Khlong Phasi Charoen, Phasi Charoen, Bangkok 10160
Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen rewards visitors with a rare combination of architectural ambition and living spiritual practice. The 80-metre Maharatchamongkhon Stupa, finished in 2012, contains a five-storey interior culminating in the celebrated Dhammakaya Cetiya, a green glass pagoda set beneath a mural-covered cosmic ceiling. Outside, the 69-metre seated Buddha completed in 2021 reframes the entire skyline of the district.
Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen is a royal-class Buddhist temple in Bangkok's Phasi Charoen district, located on the western side of the Chao Phraya River in the area historically known as Thonburi. The temple traces its origins to 1610 during the Ayutthaya period, making it one of the older temple foundations in and around Bangkok. Its modern significance was shaped in the first half of the twentieth century under the abbot Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro, a meditation master credited with reviving the Dhammakaya meditation tradition that now connects this temple to a global practitioner community.
The architectural centrepiece is the Maharatchamongkhon Stupa, an 80-metre white chedi completed in 2012 at a cost of 500 million baht. Its exterior presents a classic tiered form, but the interior is where the stupa distinguishes itself. Five floors of gallery space are decorated with paintings drawn from Buddhist cosmological texts, including the Traibhumikatha and the legend of Phra Malai, which map the realms of existence in vivid detail. The fifth and highest accessible floor holds the Dhammakaya Cetiya, a luminous green glass pagoda surrounded by thousands of small Buddha images and covered by a ceiling mural depicting a vast celestial expanse. The effect is meditative and visually unlike anything else in Bangkok.
In front of the stupa stands the Phra Buddha Dhammakaya Thepmongkhon, a seated Buddha image 69 metres tall and 40 metres wide, completed in 2021. At this scale it is visible from considerable distance across the flat Thonburi landscape and serves as a navigational landmark for the entire neighbourhood.
Visitors should observe temple etiquette by covering shoulders and knees. Meditation halls within the complex are active practice spaces and require silence. Admission is free. The MRT Blue Line Bang Phai station puts the temple within a 10 to 12 minute walk. BTS Wutthakat station is the nearest skytrain access point, from which a motorcycle taxi or short metered cab ride reaches the temple entrance directly.