Wat Si Buri Rattanaram

Wat Si Buri Rattanaram is a working Buddhist temple in Pak Phriao subdistrict, central Mueang Saraburi, on Phichai Ronnarongsongkhram Road near the Pa Sak River. It’s known locally by its older name, Wat Pak Priao, and by a temple legend that the Emerald Buddha itself once rested here.

Temple records date the site to 1549 (B.E. 2092), built for army religious ceremonies — Saraburi sat on a military route between the capital and Laos for much of the Ayutthaya and early Bangkok periods. The temple’s best-known story concerns the Emerald Buddha’s journey from Vientiane to Siam in the late 1770s: after Chao Phraya Chakri’s campaign against Vientiane, the image is said to have been kept at Wat Pak Priao for around a month before continuing downriver toward the new capital. It’s temple tradition rather than a claim you’ll find independently verified outside Saraburi sources, but it’s why a modest local temple carries such a formal-sounding name — the wat was renamed Si Buri Rattanaram later, while Phra Sri Sutasmuni served as the senior monk of Saraburi.

The temple’s actual object of devotion today is Luang Por Buddho, a Sukhothai-Ayutthaya-style Buddha image seated in the Subduing Mara (Maravijaya) posture — 2.3 metres wide and 3.6 metres tall, housed in a vihara next to the ubosot. Locals from Saraburi come to pay respects with garlands of three or nine flowers and a young coconut, then make a wish. The ordination hall itself is a working space for the resident monks rather than a museum piece, so expect an active, lived-in temple rather than a restored showcase.

Insider Tip: Combine a visit with the Pa Sak riverfront a short walk away — Pak Phriao grew up around the river crossing, and the old shophouse streets near the temple give a better sense of pre-highway Saraburi than the modern town center does.

Saraburi town itself is easy to combine with a wat-hopping day — Wat Chanthaburi and Wat Khaokaew Voraviharn are both a short drive away, and the Saraburi hub page covers the wider province, including the more famous Buddha’s-footprint temple at Phra Phutthabat.