Wat Bowonniwet Vihara

Wat Bowonniwet Vihara is a first-class royal monastery on the north-east side of old Bangkok, along the Banglamphu canal. Its own history begins in 1836, when King Rama III asked Prince Mongkut, then a monk, to become abbot of what was at that time Wat Mai. Under King Rama VI the temple was merged with the neighbouring Wat Rangsee Suddhawas. Prince Mongkut later became King Rama IV.

The temple belongs to the Dhammayut (Dhammayuttika) order, and its abbots have included members of the royal family who led that order. The temple’s list gives the sixth abbot as Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara, from 1961 to 2013. He became the 19th Supreme Patriarch of Thailand and lived at the temple.

The grounds are divided into a sanctuary area, with the ordination hall, great cetiya and Buddha footprint, and a residential area for the monks. The Thai side of the website also carries the lunar (pakkha) calendar and the ordination schedule outside the rains retreat.

The temple’s English website does not describe any meditation courses for visitors, so this page does not claim any. For people interested in the teacher, the temple is the place to understand his life: see Somdet Nyanasamvara, and the forest-meditation centre he built near Pattaya, Wat Yannasangwararam.