Wat Phu Tok (Wat Chetiyakhiri Vihara)

Wat Phu Tok, officially Wat Chetiyakhiri Vihara, sits on Phu Tok Noi, one of two sandstone hills that rise out of the flat forest near Si Wilai in Bueng Kan Province. Phu Tok means isolated mountain in the Isan dialect.

Ajahn Juan Kulajettho, who had trained under Ajahn Mun, settled here in the late 1960s. The Tourism Authority records that the wooden walkways were built over about five years, from 1969, with the labour and faith of monks, novices and villagers. The paths wind up the cliff in seven sections, past caves, shrines and monks’ huts. On the fifth level are the main Buddha hall and living quarters. A large cave near the fifth level shelters statues of senior forest monks, with Ajahn Mun at their head (My Sakon Nakhon). The last stretch, to the forested summit on the seventh level, is a walkway of about 400 metres clinging to the cliff, and the Tourism Authority notes that most visitors stop at the sixth.

Ajahn Juan died in a plane crash on 27 April 1980, on a journey to Bangkok. A memorial chedi with a museum, not far below the cliff path, commemorates him.

It is a working monastery, and the walkways are steep and exposed. Go early, wear shoes with grip, and treat the climb as the monastery intends it: walk mindfully and keep quiet.