Thepphitak Phunnaram Temple

A 45-metre white Buddha statue, its chest spanning roughly 27 metres, sits on a hillside above Khao Yai’s western approach at Wat Thepphitak Phunnaram — known locally as Wat Phra Khao, “the white Buddha temple,” for the statue everyone actually comes to see. Reaching it means climbing 1,250 stone steps split across two staircases shaped like the two halves of a Bodhi leaf, meeting where the statue stands. The number isn’t arbitrary: it echoes the 1,250 arahants who, according to Buddhist tradition, gathered unannounced to hear the Buddha teach on the full moon of the third lunar month — the event commemorated at Magha Puja.

The formal name of the statue, Phra Phutthasakon Simamongkol, gets little use outside signage — everyone from monks to tour drivers calls it Luang Por Khao. Founded in March 1971 as a Thammayut-order monastery in Klang Dong subdistrict, the temple has grown well beyond the single statue: cave shrines cut into the hillside, the abbot’s residence, a separate reclining Buddha image, and a Guanyin garden are all scattered across the grounds, most of them reachable without tackling the full 1,250-step climb. Free-roaming peacocks are the temple’s other signature — expect to see (and hear) them wandering the lower grounds and parking areas, tails occasionally fanned for visitors with cameras ready.

The climb itself is the main physical commitment here. There’s shade from trees lower down, but the upper sections are more exposed, and the stone steps get warm by mid-morning in the hot season. Views from the top take in the Pak Chong valley and the hills marking Khao Yai’s edge — worth the effort on a clear day, less so if haze or rain rolls in.

Insider Tip: Start the climb before 9am — direct sun on the open upper staircase makes a midday ascent considerably harder than the same walk an hour or two earlier.

Watch out: The staircase has no shade for its final stretch and no handrail on every section — worn or slippery shoes make the descent trickier than the climb up.

The temple sits close enough to the Pak Chong–Khao Yai corridor that it works well as a half-day add-on rather than a destination in its own right — pair it with a morning at Khao Yai’s visitor centres or one of the vineyards along Highway 2090 before heading back down toward Bangkok. Bring water for the climb; there’s little in the way of shaded rest points partway up, and the site doesn’t run a formal drinks concession at the base.