Phra Pathom Chedi, Nakhon Pathom: the tallest stupa in Thailand

The tallest stupa in Thailand stands in Nakhon Pathom

The spire reaches 120.45 metres, taller than anything else of its kind in Thailand. Its base runs 235.50 metres round, and a cloister encircles the whole terrace at 562 metres, with 24 belfries spaced between that cloister and the outer wall. Walk the full circuit instead of crossing to one side and turning back.

What you see today is a casing over something much older. Prince Mongkut, then still a monk, found the original stupa in ruins in 1831, and the Sri Lankan-style structure raised over it was completed in 1870 under Chulalongkorn. The building in your photographs dates from the nineteenth century while the stupa sealed inside it is far older, and the clearest trace of that earlier life sits in the southern vihara, which holds a stone Buddha from the Dvaravati period.

The four viharas and the reclining Buddha

Four viharas face outward from the terrace, one to each compass point, and each holds something different. They are the reason a walk round the base takes longer than it looks from the car park.

• North: the Phra Ruang Buddha, 7.2 metres, holding the ashes of King Vajiravudh
• East: wall murals and the image known as Phra Nirantarai
• South: a Dvaravati stone Buddha, the oldest-looking thing on the terrace
• West: a reclining Buddha, 17 metres long
• Between the cloister and the outer wall: 24 belfries set along the 562-metre ring

Phra Pathom Chedi opening hours and the quietest time to go

The gates open at 7:00am and stay open until 8:00pm, seven days a week, which is a far longer day than the canals allow you. Published listings for this temple disagree with each other, so check the board at the gate on the day. Respectful attire is required, and the complex asks THB 20 per person.

Two very different visits fit inside those hours. Both museums on site shut in the afternoon, so a morning arrival is the only way to get the terrace and the collections in one go. If the stupa and the viharas are what you came for, the last hours of the afternoon are calmer and you can stay until the gates close at 8:00pm. Arrive on a Monday or a Tuesday and the museums drop out of the plan altogether.

Give the stop more time than one photograph needs. The cloister alone is 562 metres round, shoes come off and go back on at four halls, and the amulet market beside the compound belongs to the same walk.

Fitting the chedi into a floating market day

Phra Pathom Chedi sits 52.9 km from Bangkok by road, about 46 minutes of driving. Damnoen Saduak lies 80 to 100 km southwest of the city, an hour and a half to two hours out, and the useful trading window there runs roughly 07:00 to 09:30, with the heaviest selling between 07:00 and 09:00. Putting both on the outbound leg does not work. A temple stop before the canal costs you the market you drove out for.

Put the chedi on the return leg. Off the water around 09:30, then about 1.5 hours at the Maeklong railway market, which trades daily from 07:00 to 16:00, and the afternoon still has hours in it while the chedi stays open until 8:00pm. Ask for that shape if you are travelling with a driver and a guide.

Leave the chedi out of a Friday-to-Sunday day built around Amphawa. The hours on the market's own site are 2 pm to 9 pm, the seafood boats are grilling from midday until late in the evening, and in the rainy months of roughly May to October the firefly boats only push off once it is properly dark. Nothing in that evening frees up a driving hour for a temple on the opposite side of Bangkok.

What else in the town is worth the stop

A large amulet market trades right next to the chedi, which makes it the easiest addition going: the car does not have to move. The two museums on the site are the other obvious pair, both Wednesday to Sunday, so the day of the week decides whether they are an option at all.

The other Nakhon Pathom temple travellers ask about is Wat Sam Phran, in Sam Phran district, around 40 kilometres west of Bangkok and 30 to 45 minutes from the centre by car. Seventeen storeys rise 80 metres in a pink cylinder with a dragon wound up the outside. The dragon is hollow, a spiral staircase runs through it, and parts of that staircase have deteriorated. It opens 6am to 6pm daily and was registered as a temple in 1985, which makes it a very recent neighbour to a chedi rebuilt in 1870. With travel it takes about half a day, so keep it for a Bangkok day rather than bolting it onto a canal morning.

Tours on this site that run out in this direction

Neither tour below names Phra Pathom Chedi among its listed stops, so raise the chedi with the operator rather than assuming it sits in the itinerary. The difference between the two comes down to how much slack the day leaves you.

The private excursion is the one with room in it: your own vehicle, hotel pickup and drop-off in Bangkok, and a 6 to 7 hour day that ends early enough to leave the afternoon usable for a temple west of the city. The Ayutthaya tour runs 10 to 11 hours and is full from end to end.

• Private Excursion to Maeklong Railway and Floating Markets, rated 5.0 ★ (877 reviews), from THB 4100: at 6 to 7 hours it is the shortest day on this site, and that is where the spare afternoon comes from. The transport is private and collects you from a Bangkok hotel, excluding hotels near the airport or outside the city area; a licensed English-speaking Thai guide travels with you, the canal is covered by a private long-tail run of about 20 to 30 minutes, local fruits, desserts and a drink come along the way, and accident insurance is part of it, so passport names are needed at the time of booking.
• Damnoen Saduak Floating Market & Ayutthaya Tour from Bangkok, from THB 960 and rated 4.9 ★ (627 reviews): 10 to 11 hours, with the old capital already occupying the slot a temple detour would need. You travel with an English-speaking guide in an air-conditioned vehicle, one bottle of water per person, and the long-tail ride on the canal is in the price; lunch and all entrance fees are not. Departures go from the Starbucks on Khao San Road, beside Chana Songkhram Police Station, or from Silom MRT Station Exit 2 next to Dusit Central Park.

Questions people ask

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