Wat Chantaram

Wat Chantaram — known almost everywhere by its everyday name, Wat Tha Sung — is Uthai Thani’s marquee temple, built around a 100-metre glass-walled hall that has made it one of the most photographed Buddhist sites in central Thailand. It sits on the Uthai Thani-Manorom road in Nam Suem subdistrict, and it’s free to enter every day of the week.

The temple dates to the Ayutthaya period, when it was a small monastery in what’s now Nam Suem subdistrict. Its formal name honours a former abbot called Chan — local tradition holds he was a soldier under King Narai who came home from a campaign near Chiang Mai to find his wife gone, and stayed on to ordain here instead. The nickname Tha Sung (“log pier”) comes from the district’s old role as a hub for floating logs downriver during Uthai Thani’s timber-trading years.

The temple stayed a modest riverside monastery — with murals of the Buddha’s life added by local artisans and a pulpit built by an early Rattanakosin-era abbot, Luang Pho Yai — until Luang Pho Ruesi Lingdam (formally Phra Ratchaphrommayan) took over in the late 1960s. Over roughly two decades he expanded the grounds from six rai to close to 290 rai and built the structures that draw visitors today.

The Wihan Kaew (Glass Vihara)

The 100-metre Wihan Kaew is the building people come for: a mirrored, glass-mosaic hall lined with carved pillars and topped by more than a hundred chandeliers. Luang Pho Ruesi Lingdam built it before his death in 1992, and it now holds his body, preserved and displayed in a glass coffin — visitors can view it as part of a walk through the hall. A replica of the Phra Phuttha Chinnarat Buddha image is enshrined inside. The hall keeps a midday closure, open roughly 09:00-11:45 and 14:00-16:00, with the break reserved for the monks’ meditation session — plan around it rather than arriving at noon expecting to walk straight in.

Golden Castle and the new ordination hall

A short walk from the Wihan Kaew stands the Prasat Thong Kham (Golden Castle) — a three-tier structure with 37 gilded spires, 36 of them matched in height and topped by a walking-posture Buddha image on the tallest. Nearby, the newer ubosot (ordination hall) was completed with intricately carved doors and windows depicting celestial figures, and King Rama IX himself presided over its official opening. Inside, oversized images of Luang Pho Parn and Luang Pho Yai — built three times life-size — stand against a glass-mosaic wall, and the Phra Wihan Somdej Ong Pathom houses an 87-kilogram gold-alloy Buddha image, 2 metres across the lap, said to enshrine relics of the Buddha.

Insider Tip: Arrive right at 09:00, or just after the 14:00 reopening, to beat the coach-tour crowds that build up mid-morning and mid-afternoon around the Wihan Kaew’s glass coffin.

Watch out: The midday closure catches people out — arrive at 12:30 expecting to walk into the Wihan Kaew and you’ll be waiting until 14:00. Time your visit around the two open windows instead.

Dress modestly — covered shoulders and knees are enforced more strictly here than at a lot of provincial temples, given the volume of visitors the glass hall draws. Parking is available on site, and the grounds are large enough that comfortable shoes make more of a difference than they would at a typical single-building wat. Combine the visit with Khao Sakaekrang, Uthai Thani’s riverside hill a short drive away, or the Sakae Krang River itself, to round out a day based around Uthai Thani town.