AT A GLANCE

Why go?

Wat Ban Non Than, also known by its forest-monastery name Wat Pa Kusalachitto, is a small, working Buddhist temple on the northern edge of Mueang Udon Thani, in Tambon Ban Chan. It is the kind of place that anchors daily Isan village life rather than a curated tourist stop—its grounds stay open through the day, locals come and go to make merit, and the pace is quiet and ordinary in the best sense. For a traveller already in Udon Thani, it offers an easy, unhurried glimpse of how a neighbourhood temple actually functions.↗

The double name tells you something useful. "Wat Ban Non Than" identifies it as the temple of the Ban Non Than community, while the "Wat Pa" (forest temple) prefix and the name Kusalachitto place it within the Thai forest-monastic tradition that is especially strong across the northeast. The result is a temple that feels less like a formal city wat and more like a leafy, lived-in monastic compound set into a farming district.↗