Wat Thammathippatai

Wat Thammathippatai keeps the carved wooden door panels from Wat Phra Fang’s ruined wihan inside a purpose-built hall called the Dhammasapha. The temple sits at the In Chai Mi intersection with Samran Ruen Road in central Uttaradit — a few minutes from downtown, not out at the edge of town.

It was originally named Wat Ton Makham, after a large tamarind tree that once stood on the grounds. By the time abbot Phra Suthammethi petitioned to rename it, the tree was long gone and the temple sat in the middle of a busy, built-up part of Uttaradit — a name meaning “tamarind tree temple” no longer fit a site people passed daily on their way through town. The new name, Thammathippatai, stuck.

The panels themselves came from Wat Phra Fang, an active temple whose original wihan fell into ruin. Carved from pru wood (Alangium) during the Ayutthaya period, the doors measure 2.2 metres wide, 5.3 metres tall, and 16 centimetres thick, cut in a scrolling kanok kan khot foliage pattern arranged around seven bud-shaped khao bin clusters. Local accounts rank the carving second in Thailand only to the door panels of Wat Suthat in Bangkok.

They’re now housed in the Dhammasapha (Dharma Hall), a two-storey concrete building — 19.3 metres wide and 40.3 metres long — the first structure of its kind built in Uttaradit Province. The building’s scale was really set by the job of protecting the doors, not by fitting a large congregation.

Insider Tip: The doors are the reason to detour here. Wat Phra Fang itself, a short drive away, only has the ruined wihan shell left standing — seeing both sites together tells the fuller story of where the carving originally hung.

The temple is an easy stop if you’re already exploring Uttaradit’s historic core — Wat Phra Fang’s ruined wihan lies a short drive north, and the old Pichai city wall remnants sit within the same part of town. None of the three charges an entry fee, so a single loop covers much of Uttaradit’s tangible link to its Ayutthaya-period past.

Entry is free and the temple keeps no fixed visiting hours beyond standard etiquette — cover shoulders and knees, and remove shoes before entering the Dhammasapha. It sits inside Uttaradit town, an easy stop alongside the province’s other historic temples.