Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen

Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen is a third-class royal monastery of the ordinary type standing on what is effectively a small square island in the canals west of the Chao Phraya, and it is the home temple of the Vijja Dhammakaya meditation tradition. The temple's own history gives its address as 300 Ratchamongkhon Prasat Road, Pak Khlong Phasi Charoen subdistrict, Phasi Charoen district, Bangkok, an area of about 20 rai 88 square wa, in the Mahanikaya order. 2199, 1656, under King Narai. Daily 08:00–18:00. The Tourism Authority of Thailand lists no regular closure day.

Three structures account for most of a visit to Wat Paknam. The Maharatchamongkhon stupa, begun in 2004 and completed in 2012 at a cost of 500 million baht, is a twelve-sided tower 80 metres high containing five floors, the uppermost of which holds an eight-metre glass stupa. The ordination hall holds the principal image, Phra Buddha Maha Mongkhon, and the temple keeps the preserved bodies of Phra Mongkhon Thepmuni, Sot Chandasaro, and of the late abbot Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangkhalachan, Chuang Varapunyo. The Tourism Authority of Thailand lists no regular closure day.

Allow seventy-five minutes at Wat Paknam. The stupa alone takes a good half hour, because five floors are climbed and the top-floor glass chedi is the sort of room people sit down in rather than pass through. The great Buddha, approached from the canal side, takes another fifteen minutes to walk around and look up at. General admission is free. Take the MRT Blue Line to Bang Phai station (BL33), then walk approximately 12 minutes. The Tourism Authority of Thailand also identifies Wutthakat BTS station as an alternative, approximately 15 minutes away on foot, and notes that charter-boat arrival is possible.

Go in the morning, and go on a weekday if there is a choice. Wat Paknam publishes no opening or closing time on its own site, so a visit should be planned inside ordinary daylight rather than around an evening figure taken from a listing. Daily 08:00–18:00. Take the MRT Blue Line to Bang Phai station (BL33), then walk approximately 12 minutes. The Tourism Authority of Thailand also identifies Wutthakat BTS station as an alternative, approximately 15 minutes away on foot, and notes that charter-boat arrival is possible.

No admission is recorded for Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen. The temple's own website publishes no ticket price, no opening time and no closing time anywhere: what was checked was the site's front page, its history page, its temple tour page and its contact page, none of which carries a visiting section. General admission is free. Bang Phai MRT station has lift access because every MRT station is equipped with lifts; station staff can assist wheelchair users. The principal glass-stupa and ceiling display is on the fifth floor. Official visitor information does not document a step-free route through the temple or to this floor.

Wat Paknam stands at 300 Ratchamongkhon Prasat Road, Pak Khlong subdistrict, Phasi Charoen district, Bangkok 10160. Water on four sides is why the road approach loops. Take the MRT Blue Line to Bang Phai station (BL33), then walk approximately 12 minutes. The Tourism Authority of Thailand also identifies Wutthakat BTS station as an alternative, approximately 15 minutes away on foot, and notes that charter-boat arrival is possible. The principal glass-stupa and ceiling display is on the fifth floor. Official visitor information does not document a step-free route through the temple or to this floor.

Buildings behind those last two numbers are for people who have come to practise, not to look. Because the temple publishes no closing time, do not arrive late in the afternoon assuming the stupa will still admit visitors. Dress with shoulders and knees covered. Bang Phai MRT station has lift access because every MRT station is equipped with lifts; station staff can assist wheelchair users. The temple states that it was established around 1610, during the reign of King Songtham, and elevated to royal-temple status around 1656.

The two subjects at Wat Paknam demand opposite settings. Phra Buddha Dhammakaya Thepmongkhon, 69 metres of bronze, needs distance and low light: from across Khlong Bangkok Yai, or from a canal boat, the figure sits above the roofs of the neighbourhood and acquires the scale that a photograph taken at its feet destroys. Between them, the older core photographs badly in the middle of the day and well in the first hour of light. The seated image is Phra Buddha Dhammakaya Thep Mongkol, identified by the temple as one of the complex's principal highlights.