Wat Phra That Choeng Chum

About

Wat Phra That Choeng Chum is a major Buddhist temple in Sakon Nakhon Province in Thailand's Northeast. At its heart stands Phra That Choeng Chum, a rectangular chedi of mortar and brick that rises twenty-four metres — an important religious monument for the surrounding province and a recognisable symbol of the region as a whole. The image of the stupa appears on the reverse of the Thai ten-satang coin.

Sakon Nakhon was once a significant city within the Khmer-influenced Khotraboon polity, the ancient capital of which lay at Srikhotraboon in present-day Udon Thani Province. From the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries the area flourished under that cultural sphere, and numerous Khmer shrines and artefacts across the province still bear witness to its prominence. The Shrine of the Holy Relic of Narai Jengweng, Phuphek, Dum, and the old Khmer bridge are all reminders of that earlier age.

The great chedi of Wat Phra That Choeng Chum was raised to cover the venerated footprints of four Buddhas — Phra Kakusantha, Phra Konakom, Phra Kassapa, and the present Buddha Phra Kodom — together with the footprint of Phra Sri Ariyametrei, the Buddha who is to come. Beside the chedi stands a chapel housing Luang Por Ong Saen, a Buddha image of particular reverence for the people of the province.

History

Wat Phra That Choeng Chum draws on a long history shaped by the Khmer cultural sphere that prevailed across the region during the height of the Khotraboon kingdom in the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. The chedi was built to enshrine the footprints of the five Buddhas — the four past Buddhas together with the future Buddha Phra Sri Ariyametrei — making the temple a major Theravada pilgrimage site. The image of the stupa was selected to appear on the ten-satang coin, an everyday reminder of its place in Thai national memory.