Phra Bang, Wat Trai Phum

Wat Trai Phum in Tha Uthen district holds Phra Bang, a standing Buddha image in the Ham Samut (“calming the ocean”) pose that local records date to around 261 years old as of 2026 — brought, according to temple history, from Champasak in southern Laos. This is not the same statue as Laos’s own famous Phra Bang in Luang Prabang; the two share only a name and the tradition of housing a revered travelling Buddha image. Entry to the temple is free, and the image is on view year-round in its own shrine within the grounds.

The image stands about 80 inches — roughly two metres — cast from a fusion of gold, silver, naak alloy, white gold and copper, resting on an octagonal pedestal supported by eight carved elephants. Sapphires are set around its waist, and a diamond once marked the navel, now lost. The whole figure comes apart into five separable pieces — crown, head, hands, torso, and base — a detail that points to how it was made to travel rather than stay fixed in one place, matching the temple’s own account of its journey from Laos. An inscription on the base, in old Lao Tham script, records local patrons who funded its casting.

Insider Tip: Time a visit for mid-April if you can — Phra Bang is carried out of the temple and paraded through Tha Uthen for a public bathing ceremony around Songkran (13 April), presided over by local officials and clergy. Local belief holds that parading the image brings rain for the coming season, and it’s the one time of year the image leaves its usual shrine.

The temple sits at 87 Mu 5, Si Mueang Road, in Tha Uthen town itself — not out on a river cliff, and easily reached on foot from the district’s small riverside centre. Cover shoulders and knees before entering the shrine, and remove shoes as usual for any enclosed Buddha-image hall. Phra That Tha Uthen, the district’s other major religious landmark, is a short walk away and pairs naturally with a Wat Trai Phum visit.