AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Wat Mani Sathit Kapittharam, known locally as Wat Thung Kaew, is the only royal temple in Uthai Thani province. Founded in 1888 by a wandering monk in a bamboo forest, it holds an extraordinary distinction: the water from its sacred pond was used in the coronation ceremonies of three Thai kings. Today the temple complex combines a tall five-pinnacled prang, antique teakwood monastery buildings, and a meditative ordination hall in the heart of Uthai Thani town.↗↗
A Royal Temple Born in the Bamboo Forest
The story of this temple begins in 1888 when Phra Ajarn Yaem, a meditation master from Wat Moli Lok in Bangkok, arrived on pilgrimage and settled in a bamboo grove outside the old town of Sakae Krang. Local residents so revered his teachings that a family donated a simple wooden-floor hall for his retreat. King Rama V granted the royal charter (visung kammasima) in 1891, formally establishing it as a monastery.↗↗
In 1913, the great Prince Vajirananavarorasa—the Supreme Patriarch and reformer of Thai Buddhism—passed through during a northern inspection tour. He found the bamboo-forest grounds so charming that he renamed the temple Wat Thung Kaew, meaning "Crystal Field," after the meadow the locals already used to describe the area. A devastating fire in 1935 that gutted the market district led authorities to merge a neighboring ruined temple, Wat Khwid, into this compound. The final name, Wat Mani Sathit Kapittharam, was bestowed in 1938 by Somdej Phra Wanarat (Heng Khemachari), the regional abbot: "Mani" (crystal) echoes Thung Kaew, and "Kapith" (wood-apple tree) recalls Wat Khwid.
