Wat Ratchaorasaram Ratchaworawihan

Wat Ratchaorasaram Ratchaworawihan is a first-class royal temple (Ratchaworawihan) in Chom Thong district on Bangkok’s Thonburi side, beside Khlong Bang Khun Thian — not one of the central riverside royal temples clustered near the Grand Palace. Entry is free. It’s historically significant as the first Thai temple built in the Chinese-influenced style that King Rama III favoured throughout his reign, a full generation before he took the throne.

The site predates Bangkok itself, believed to have started as an ordinary Ayutthaya-period monastery known locally as Wat Chom Thong, Wat Chao Thong, or Wat Kong Thong — its original founder is unrecorded. Around 1820, Prince Chetsadabodin, the future Rama III, stopped here while leading a naval force to intercept Burmese troops at the Three Pagodas Pass in Kanchanaburi. He paused to perform a ceremony from the old treatise on war strategy and pray for victory; the Burmese army never came. Afterward, he personally funded and oversaw a full renovation of the temple and offered it as a royal monastery. King Rama II then renamed it Wat Ratchaorasaram — roughly “the royal son’s temple” — in recognition of his son’s work, even though Chetsadabodin was still only a prince.

Insider Tip: Because Rama III paid for and directed the renovation personally rather than as a state project, he shaped the artistic choices to his own taste — which is exactly why this temple, rather than a more prominent one, ended up as the first example of his signature Chinese-Thai fusion style.

That fusion is visible in the ordination and image halls: the roof gables are finished in plain brick and mortar rather than the chofa, bai raka, and hang hong ornaments typical of Thai temple roofs, replaced instead by decorative Chinese-pattern glazed tiles. Murals inside cover the walls with Chinese landscape scenes and auspicious motifs, and the support columns are large and rectangular, without the lotus-bud capitals seen on most Thai temple pillars. The overall effect — Thai temple form carried out in a deliberately Chinese decorative language — became a template later copied at other Rama III-era temples across the city.

Dress modestly — shoulders and knees covered — as at any working Thai temple, and remove your shoes before entering the halls. It’s away from Bangkok’s main tourist temple circuit, so a car, taxi, or ride-hailing app from central Bangkok is more practical than public transport. Bang Khun Thian District Museum, covering the same stretch of Thonburi’s canal-side history, makes a reasonable pairing if you’re exploring this part of Bangkok beyond the main riverside temples.