Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan

Great Chedi Temple Of Southern Thailand, On Thailand'S UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List · Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nakhon Si Thammarat

Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan is the most revered temple in southern Thailand and the heart of Nakhon Si Thammarat, one of the oldest cities in the country, known in early records as Tambralinga and to European traders as Ligor. Its great chedi, the Phra Borommathat, is a massive white bell in the Sri Lankan style, tall enough to dominate the old town, rising from a square terrace to a slender spire plated with gold. Tradition holds that it enshrines relics of the Buddha, and it is ringed by smaller chedis and by covered galleries lined with rows of seated Buddha images. Halls around the courtyard hold gilded images, and a temple museum displays centuries of gifts from the faithful: jewellery, ceramics, silver and votive tablets. Pilgrims arrive all day to walk around the chedi, and on the great festivals thousands carry long cloths to wrap it in the Hae Pha Khuen That ceremony. The temple is on Thailand's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status, and it sits in a city known for shadow puppets, nielloware and fiery southern curries.

Ratchadamnoen Road, Nai Mueang, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nakhon Si Thammarat, 80000, Thailand

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the temple grounds open early, from about 7 or 8 am, and close around 5 or 6 pm, with the chedi lit in the evening and worshippers present into the evening on festival days; there is no weekly closing day for the temple. The temple museum keeps shorter hours, roughly 8.30 or 9 am to 4 pm, may close at lunchtime and has sometimes closed on certain days; the National Museum has a weekly closing day, commonly Monday, Tuesday or both. The traps that ruin a visit are arriving at midday on the scorching white terrace, finding the museum closed in the late afternoon or on its closing day, coming in the monsoon floods of roughly October to January, and missing the Makha Bucha procession by a day. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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