Luang Pho Phra Thong (Phra Phut)

This temple is known among the villagers as Wat Phra Phut or Wat Phra Lo, where approximately one cubit of Ketumala, the finial, of a golden Buddha's head, was told to have emerged from the ground. LUANG PHO PHRA PHUT originally was only a half body golden image (only upper part of the body) on the ground. Then the people built the other image covering the original one as you can see today.

LUANG PHO PHRA PHUT - Golden Buddha Image

The history of WAT PHRATHONG and LUANG PHO PHRA PHUT was never written down before and just the older people told the younger ones the story of the GOLDEN IMAGE BUDDHA.

According to legend, this area of this holy monastery used to be a pasture which the villager used for feeding their cows and buffaloes. One morning, a young boy took his buffalo to be grazing here. Usually he was able to tie the buffalo’s rope with bushes in that area, but on this day he could not. He had to walk around and around to look for something else to tie his buffalo’s rope. Then he walked to the bank of the river and saw a strange piece of stone which was covering with mud. So he tied the rope with this stone, the image's final, unaware of what it really was. The boy returned home, suddenly fell sick and died later the same morning. His parents and neighbours where shocked and buried the boy on the same day. The boy’s father went to the field to the buffalo and got shocked once again. Because the buffalo was already dead as well.

The father returned home and at night he dreamed that his beloved son and his buffalo had to die because his son has not tied the rope with a muddy stone, but with the head of a GOLDEN BUDDHA image. The next day the villagers went to see the strange muddy stone. They all washed the mud out and saw that this really was the GOLDEN BUDDHA IMAGE. They all prayed respectfully and reported this exciting news to the governor of Thalang. The governor ordered his men to dig up the GOLDEN BUDDHA IMAGE. But they all failed in digging. They tried very hard but many strange things happened during the digging. The ones, who were digging, were assaulted by a swarm of wasps, hornets and bees from the dug up earth. The ones who prayed didn’t get any harm. The governor of Thalang learned of this miraculous incident and had a shelter built to cover the GOLDEN BUDDHA IMAGE. Several years later, a white-clad ascetic or Chipakhao came to stop at Thalang. For fear that the golden finial would be cut and stolen, the ascetic and villagers prepared a cement mixture out of burnt shells and sand to cover the Buddha's head.

In the reign of King Rama I, southern Thailand was invaded by Burmese troops and Thalang was seized. the Burmese soldiers tried to dig out the image, wishing to take it back to their country. They were bitten by a swarm of tiny ants from the dug out earth. Hundreds of them fell sick and died while the reset set fire to the ants and continued digging as deep as the neck of the image. Fortunately, the ruler of Nakhon Si Thammarat led his army to successfully liberate the city. After that, a monk from Sukhothai came to stop at Thalang and persuaded the villagers to build a temple here to include a Kuti - the monks residence, Wihan - an image hall and Phra Ubosot - the ordination hall, with Phra Phut being the principal image. The Buddha's head was covered with a new image for religious performances.

Thai people called “PHRA PHUT” meaning the Buddha image coming up from the ground. PHRA PHUT is only the head of the golden Buddha image which is just about one foot from the ground. Meanwhile Chinese people called it “PHOO PHUK” because they all believed that this Golden Image came from China. Every year in February Chinese and Thai people from the neighbouring towns are coming to make worship during the Chinese New Year’s days.

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