Wat Tham Ta Pan, Phang Nga
A cave temple built into a karst cliff, with a walk-through depiction of the Buddhist hells.
Wat Tham Ta Pan, Phang Nga
Wat Tham Ta Pan is set against a limestone cliff on the edge of Phang Nga town, with its shrines built into caves at the base of the rock. Steps climb through the caverns past Buddha images to openings in the cliff face that look out over the town.
The temple is best known for something quite different: a garden depicting the Buddhist hells, laid out on the approach, in which life-size painted figures show the punishments awaiting particular sins. It is graphic and entirely sincere - a teaching device of a kind found at a number of Thai temples, and here on an unusually thorough scale. A large seated Buddha and a reclining figure occupy the caves themselves.
It is a short distance from the centre of Phang Nga town and takes an hour to walk round.
- Ao Phang Nga National Park — The drowned karst bay of limestone towers, sea caves and mangrove channels between Phuket and Krabi.
- Sa Nang Manora Forest Park, Phang Nga — A moss-covered rainforest gorge with a chain of small waterfalls and pools, just outside Phang Nga town.
- Wat Bang Riang, Phang Nga — A hilltop temple above the Phang Nga hinterland, with a huge seated Buddha and a bronze Guanyin.
