AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Wat Phra That Sila (วัดพระธาตุศิลา) is an active Theravada Buddhist temple serving a farming village in Tambon Sum Sao, Amphoe Phen, in Udon Thani province. The name translates roughly as "Temple of the Stone Relic Stupa," and the wat belongs to the Mahanikaya order as a wat rat — a community temple maintained by local laypeople rather than a grand royal monastery. Its setting in the rice-country villages north-east of Udon Thani city gives it the quiet, everyday character of Isan village Buddhism.↗↗↗
This is not a packaged tourist attraction but a living place of worship, home to a small resident sangha — five monks in residence for the 2024 rains retreat, led by the abbot Phra Athikan Haeng Chandako. Visitors come mainly to see how a local temple operates, to join merit-making, and especially during festivals such as the annual Kathin robe-offering, when the wat opens its gates to donors from the surrounding villages.↗
A village temple in the heart of Isan
Wat Phra That Sila sits in Moo 11 at Ban Non Sa-at, part of Tambon Sum Sao in Amphoe Phen, Udon Thani 41150. The district is a tapestry of small farming communities, each with its own wat acting as the social and spiritual centre of the village. Like many Mahanikaya temples in the area, it is a wat rat: built up over generations by the merit and labour of local families, with the rhythm of monastic life — alms, chanting, and seasonal ceremonies — anchoring the calendar of the community.
