Phra That Kong Khao Noi

Phra That Kong Khao Noi is a small brick chedi standing alone in rice paddies at Tat Thong subdistrict, about 9 km from Yasothon town along Highway 23 near kilometre marker 194. It’s modest by Isaan chedi standards — a 2-metre-square base rising only about a metre, topped with a tapering lotus-bud finial and ringed by four miniature subsidiary chedis. Entry is free.

Local legend explains the unusual name, which translates roughly as “small rice basket stupa.” A young farmer, raised by his widowed mother after his father’s death, was plowing a field one day and grew increasingly hungry as the sun climbed higher. His mother arrived late with his midday rice, carried in a small basket — “kong khao noi.” Furious at the delay and convinced the basket held too little food for how hungry he was, he killed her in a rage. He then found the basket held far more rice than its size suggested, more than he could finish. Grief-stricken at what he’d done, he’s said to have built this chedi in atonement. It’s a story passed down through generations rather than a documented event, but it’s the reason locals and most guidebooks still refer to the site by that name.

The chedi sits inside a small brick enclosure a few metres across, with a traditional Isaan-style wooden shelter built alongside it. The Fine Arts Department registered the site as a protected archaeological monument in 1936 and carried out its most recent restoration in 2003. Unlike Yasothon’s larger, more visited temples, there’s no hilltop setting, naga staircase, or resident monks here — it’s a solitary field monument, and much of its appeal lies in exactly that quiet, unadorned setting among the paddies.

Insider Tip: Visit during the green rice season, roughly July to October, when the paddies around the chedi are at their most photogenic — dry season leaves the surrounding fields bare and dusty.

Watch out: don’t expect a temple complex with monks, prayer halls, or shops — this is a standalone monument with a small shelter and nothing else nearby, so sort out food and water before you set off.

Getting there means driving out from Yasothon town along Highway 23 toward kilometre marker 194, in Tat Thong subdistrict. There’s no public transport routed directly to the site, so car or motorbike is the practical option.

Wat Maha That (Yasothorn) and Phaya Thaen Public Park, both in Yasothon town, make an easy pairing with the trip out to the chedi.