Wat Pho Chai

Wat Pho Chai is Nong Khai's most revered temple and the spiritual heart of the town. The main building houses the Luangpho Phra Sai, a sacred Buddha image with a gold head and a bronze body studded with rubies — one of the most venerated Buddha images in northeastern Thailand. The temple itself is large and well maintained, with gilded buildings, beautiful murals, and a constant stream of Thai worshippers.

During the Songkran Festival in April, the Luangpho Phra Sai image is paraded through the town in a grand procession — the biggest event in Nong Khai's calendar. The temple is easy to reach from the town centre and is free to enter. Go in the early morning when the light is beautiful and the worshippers are most numerous.

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A story
The Luangpho Phra Sai Buddha image inside Wat Pho Chai has a singular origin story. Tradition holds it was one of three images cast for the daughters of the Lao king Setthathirat, and that it was being moved across the Mekong from Vientiane during the forced resettlements that followed the suppression of the 1827-28 Anouvong rebellion when the barge carrying it capsized and sank. The image disappeared for years before being recovered from the riverbed — the fact that it survived intact, while its two companion images were lost, was taken as a sign of its extraordinary power and sanctity.

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