Luang Pho Koon Museum, Wat Ban Rai

The Luang Pho Koon Museum occupies a separate building inside the Wat Ban Rai compound in Dan Khun Thot district, distinct from the temple’s famous elephant-shaped halls next door. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn formally opened it on 14 October 2009, timed to mark the abbot Luang Pho Khun Parisuttho’s 70th birthday, and every exhibit inside is about the monk himself rather than the site’s elephant architecture.

The building is a converted former lecture hall spread across two floors, fitted with modern lighting and audiovisual displays across ten exhibition zones. A recreation of Luang Pho Khun’s sparse living quarters shows the ascetic lifestyle he kept despite his fame — a plain bed, basic furnishings, few possessions. Cabinets hold his personal Buddhist implements and donated ceremonial items, and dispensers display ten different editions of the commemorative Luang Pho Khun coins and amulets that circulated during his lifetime and after his death, along with an interactive computer display charting his biography from childhood to ordination.

Luang Pho Khun, also styled Phra Thep Vidyakom, was Wat Ban Rai’s abbot for decades and became one of Thailand’s most widely venerated monks — his amulets are still sought nationwide. He died on 16 May 2015 at 92, having spent 71 years in the monkhood, and the museum was built specifically to preserve that legacy rather than double as another temple attraction.

Watch out: If you’ve come for photos of the giant elephant sculptures, that’s the temple building itself — see Ban Rai Temple (Wat Ban Rai), a short walk from the museum entrance. The museum building is plain and easy to miss if you’re focused on the elephants.

Insider Tip: Do the museum first, while the exhibition halls are still quiet, then spend the rest of your visit climbing through the elephant structures — most people reverse the order and rush the museum at the end.

Wat Ban Rai sits within Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) province. For another local collection of artefacts and history, Nakhon Ratchasima City Museum covers the wider province rather than a single monk’s life.