Wat Phanan Choeng Ayutthaya

Information and Directions:

Wat Phanan Choeng(วัดพนัญเชิงวรวิหาร) is an extremely popular temple located outside the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand to the SE. Personally I found the temple buildings to be somewhat ordinary although the huge old Buddha statue in the ubosoth is very beautiful. I can be difficult to get into the ubosoth to view the Buddha due to large crowds and the fact that the figure is so big that it occupies a good portion of the building. Like many such temple buildings the ubosoth was built around the statue.

I did enjoy walking around to the rear of the main temple complex where I found a Chinese shrine and a few yards more found me on the river bank watching the heavy barge traffic on the river that forms one boundary to Wat Phanan Choeng. There are huge fish in the river and since the Thais like to feed them you can purchase bags of fish food nearby. Makes for some interesting photographs if you get bored with the temple.

There is no entrance charge to this Wat and there are plenty of refreshment stalls around the buildings.

The easiest way to approach Wat Phanan Choeng is from the direction of Wat Yai Chai Mongkol on Route 3477, although you can approach from the North or South using the Bangkok Road (Route 309) and turning left or right depending on your direction of travel. Don’t expect it being easy to find a parking space!

GPS Co-ordinates: 14.34428 + 100.578411

Opinion:

If you don’t like big crowds you might want to give Wat Phanan Choeng a miss. However that said a mid week visit might not be so bad and the Buddha image in the ubosoth is worth making the effort for.

Last Visited: January 2010

View Wat Phanan Choeng on a map of the area.

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