Kuan Im Loi Nam

Kuan Im Loi Nam is a 119cm ceramic statue of Guanyin (Kuan Im), enshrined at the Chachoengsao Charitable Foundation on Suphakit Road in Na Mueang subdistrict — not the towering monument the name suggests. “Loi Nam” means “floating on water,” and it refers to how the statue was discovered: found adrift in the Bang Pakong River near a local bridge on 21 November 1997, not to any current floating display. It’s free to visit, open daily 07:00-19:00.

The recovery itself is the reason people come. According to accounts passed down locally, rescue workers and officials initially couldn’t lift the statue from the water despite its modest 40 kg weight — it wasn’t until someone lit incense in respect that a single person retrieved it with ease. Locals read this as a sign of the goddess’s power, and the story spread quickly through Chachoengsao’s Thai-Chinese community, turning what could have been a minor salvage into a genuine pilgrimage site.

The statue itself stands on a lotus base, holding a scripture in a teaching posture, its pale yellow-glazed ceramic body dressed in green bamboo-patterned cloth. It’s housed within the grounds of the Chachoengsao Charitable Foundation — a Chinese-Thai relief association building, the kind found in most provincial capitals with a historic Chinese merchant community — rather than inside a purpose-built temple. Devotees come to make offerings and ask for blessings tied to prosperity and protection, in keeping with Guanyin’s role as the bodhisattva of mercy.

Insider Tip: This is a working charity-foundation hall, not a tourist temple — keep visits low-key, dress modestly (shoulders and knees covered), and expect to see as many local worshippers making merit as sightseers.

Weekday mornings are quietest. The site sits in central Chachoengsao, an easy stop if you’re already visiting Wat Saman Rattanaram, the province’s much larger riverside temple with its own giant Ganesha and Guanyin statues, or the King Taksin the Great Stupa Memorial — both a short drive across town. Chachoengsao itself is about an hour’s drive east of Bangkok.