Wat Pha Yao

Wat Pha Yao (วัดพะเยาว์) is a working village temple on the Pa Sak River in Sao Hai district, Saraburi — not to be confused with Phayao, the separate northern province roughly 600 km away. The temple was founded in 1642, during the reign of King Prasat Thong of Ayutthaya, and its main draw is a Buddha image with an unusual survival story rather than any ruins or ancient stonework.

The statue, likely cast during the reign of King Ramathibodi II in the late 15th or early 16th century, was plastered over with stucco sometime around the Thai-Burmese wars of the 1760s — villagers disguised it as an ordinary plaster Buddha to keep it from being melted down or looted by invading forces. It stayed hidden in plain sight for nearly two centuries. In 1950, when the community was chipping away the old plaster to prepare a new image for the ordination hall, they discovered solid gold underneath. The rediscovered statue, known locally as Luang Pho Thongkham (the Golden Lord Buddha), is now the temple’s principal image and the reason it draws visitors from outside the district.

Insider Tip: Ask locally about the plaster-and-gold story before you go — the temple itself doesn’t have much English signage, and the history is what makes a short stop worth the detour off the main Saraburi road.

Watch out: Confirm you’re heading for Sao Hai district in Saraburi, not Phayao province — the near-identical name has caused real routing mix-ups for visitors searching online.

The temple grounds are modest rather than grand: a riverside ordination hall, a handful of smaller shrines, and everyday village life continuing around it. This is a working community temple, not a tourist site with facilities, so there’s no ticket booth, gift shop or scheduled tour — just a monastery that quietly protected a golden statue for two centuries. Khao Phra Phutthabat Noi, in nearby Kaeng Khoi district, is another of Saraburi’s temple sites worth checking against your route.