AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Wat Khlong Non is a small, peaceful rural Buddhist temple in the village community of Khlong Khachen, a subdistrict whose very name recalls the era when royal war elephants rested and drank along these ancient waterways. Located about five kilometers from Phichit's town center, the temple serves as both a spiritual anchor and a center of community life for the hamlet of Ban Non Ta Wetch.↗↗
Though it is not a major tourist site, Wat Khlong Non offers travelers a glimpse into the quiet rhythm of temple life in Thailand's central plain rice country—a place where the annual Kathin robe-offering still binds the village together, and where a temple school has educated children for generations.↗↗
A Temple with an Elephant History
Khlong Khachen's story begins with elephants. According to local oral history preserved in the subdistrict's own records, the Thai army marching northward through Phichit once brought war elephants to rest along this canal. The trampling of countless pachyderm feet carved the waterway over time, and the area became a royal elephant station. Nearby village names—Ban Ratcha Chang Khwan, Ban Rong Chang, Khlong Bueang Chang—all echo that legacy. The canal was originally called Khlong Chang (Elephant Canal), later elevated to the more courtly Khlong Kachen.
