Luang Pho Daeng of Wat Choeng Khao

Luang Pho Daeng is the mummified body of a revered abbot, kept in a glass case inside a shrine hall at Wat Choeng Khao in Bacho district, Narathiwat. He served the local Buddhist community for decades and died at around 90; when his body failed to decompose afterward, that alone was enough to turn the temple into a pilgrimage site for southern Thai Buddhists. Entry is free.

The shrine hall is modest rather than monumental — a single-storey wooden structure built in the vernacular southern Thai style, tile roof, unpainted teak columns gone dark with age and incense smoke. Luang Pho Daeng’s remains sit in a glass display case at the centre, dressed in saffron robes that devotees replace periodically, with donation boxes and small offering trays of lotus buds and joss sticks arranged in front. Photography of the case is generally tolerated but keep it discreet — this is an active devotional space, not a museum exhibit. A separate ordination hall nearby holds the temple’s working Buddha images and hosts the abbot’s regular ceremonies.

Insider Tip: Go on a Buddhist holy day (wan phra) if your dates line up — the shrine hall fills with local devotees making merit, and monks are usually on hand to bless visitors with saisin thread, something you won’t see on an ordinary weekday.

What you notice most is how unstaged it feels. There’s no ticket booth, no gift shop, no queue system — just a working village temple where the abbot’s preserved body has become the reason people come. Locals from Bacho and neighbouring Pattani districts still treat visits here as a genuine act of merit-making rather than tourism, and that atmosphere carries through even for visitors with no religious connection to the place.

Watch out: Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala make up Thailand’s “Deep South,” where a decades-long separatist insurgency has kept several governments’ formal travel advisories in place. The unrest is concentrated in specific inland districts and rarely touches temple sites, and this shrine continues to draw steady local pilgrim traffic, but check your government’s current advice before booking, travel in daylight, and skip isolated back roads after dark — ordinary precaution, not a reason to avoid Narathiwat altogether.

Pair the visit with Budo–Su-ngai Padi National Park’s Pacho Waterfall, in the same district, or the towering Phra Phutthathaksin Ming Mongkhon Buddhist park near Narathiwat town, for a fuller picture of the province’s Buddhist sites. The Narathiwat destination guide has more on getting around the province safely.