Koh Phangan Temples: Etiquette, Four Worth the Ride

Temples here are small, and that is the point

Koh Phangan has no Wat Pho of Bangkok, no gilded Doi Suthep. The island's temples are village temples: a hall, a few chedis, a dog asleep on the warm concrete, a monk or two in the morning and almost nobody after that. If you arrive expecting a sight, you will be disappointed in about four minutes.

Visit them instead as a way of spending an hour in the part of the island that has nothing to do with tourism. Go early, go quietly, and treat each one as a twenty-minute stop rather than an outing. Two or three in a morning, finished before the heat, is about right.

What to wear, and the rules that actually matter

Shoulders and knees covered, for everyone. A sarong in the scooter seat solves most of it; some temples keep a basket of wraps, but not all do, and arriving in beach clothes and hoping is poor form.

The rest, briefly:

• Shoes off before you enter any building with a Buddha image inside. Watch what Thai visitors do at the threshold.
• Don't point your feet at a Buddha image or at a monk. Sit with your feet tucked behind you.
• Never climb on a Buddha image or pose in front of one with your back to it. In Thailand this is a genuine offence, not a faux pas.
• Ask before photographing monks. Most will say yes.
• Women should not hand anything directly to a monk; put it down, or pass it to a man, or place it on the cloth the monk offers.
• There is usually no entry fee. There is a donation box. A hundred baht is a normal gesture, and nobody is counting.

Mornings are also when the temples are alive. Monks go out on alms round not long after first light, and at the village temples you will often find people there before work and almost nobody there by eleven.

The four worth the ride

Wat Phu Khao Noi, just behind Thong Sala near the hospital, is the oldest temple on the island — believed to date from around 1400, when the first settled monks built here, and registered as a historical site by the Fine Arts Department in 1997. A white central pagoda ringed by eight smaller ones, with upside-down ceramic bowls set into the walls. It is free, it takes twenty minutes, and it is the one piece of pre-tourism Koh Phangan that is easy to reach. The monks tend to be around only in the morning, though the grounds stay open all day.

Wat Khao Tham, in the hills above Ban Tai, is a working monastery rather than a temple to tick off — best known for its silent retreats and for one of the better viewpoints on the island. A short, steep walk up from the parking area brings you to the grounds: a reclining Buddha, scattered chedis, a Buddha footprint, paintings from the life of the Buddha, and a viewing platform that takes in the south of the island, stretches north towards Hin Kong and looks across the water to Koh Samui. Entry is free. If a retreat is running, meditators will be in silence; keep your voice down and keep out of the accommodation areas.

Wat Samai Kongka, a short ride from Wat Phu Khao Noi, is the strange one: a green, red and gold gate with a dharma wheel, and behind it a garden of clay figures depicting the Buddhist hells in considerable detail — sinners boiled in a pot, others impaled. It is a teaching device, common enough in southern Thailand, and it is not grim-tourism bait. Small children sometimes find it upsetting; adults usually find it extraordinary.

The Shrine of Our Lady Guanyin, a few kilometres from Thong Sala, is Chinese rather than Thai: a tiered complex built into a slope, dragons, decorated roofs, warrior figures. It is the most photogenic religious building on the island, and the one place that charges a small admission.

The herbal sauna at Wat Pho

At Wat Pho in Ban Tai, the temple runs a traditional steam sauna heated by a wood fire with herbs — lemongrass, tamarind and whatever else is to hand. It is a plain wooden room, hot and strongly scented, with cold water outside to rinse between rounds. Thai massage is offered at the same site.

Two honest caveats. It opens in the afternoon only, and listed hours and prices vary between sources, so treat it as something to call ahead about or simply ride past and check — it is a temple, not a business with a booking system. And it is not a spa. If you want a glass of cucumber water and a robe, you will be in the wrong place. If you want to sweat in a dark wooden box for 30 baht-ish money and come out feeling scrubbed from the inside, it is the best thing of its kind here.

If you are thinking about a silent retreat

Wat Khao Tham runs ten-day silent retreats, roughly monthly through the season, in the tradition established there by Rosemary and Steve Weissman. Dates and the way you apply change from year to year, so check the centre's own schedule rather than a third-party listing, and don't plan on walking up the hill and being given a place.

Before you commit, be clear what ten days of noble silence involves: no phone, no reading, no eye contact, no conversation, early starts, the last meal around midday, and long sitting periods on a cushion in heat. People who enjoy it are rarely the people who thought it would be relaxing. If you have never meditated, a two- or three-day introduction, or a daily drop-in class in Srithanu, is a more sensible first step than a monastic fortnight.

Also: a retreat is not a holiday with your partner. You will not see each other.

Practicalities from the quiet interior

From the hilltop at Maduawan, Thong Sala and therefore Wat Phu Khao Noi is about ten minutes, Wat Samai Kongka a few minutes beyond it, and Ban Tai — Wat Khao Tham and the Wat Pho sauna — around twenty. A sensible loop is to leave Villa Ullassa at seven, do the two Thong Sala temples before the heat arrives, eat at the market, and keep the sauna for late afternoon on a different day, when a hot wooden room sounds like a good idea rather than a punishment.

In the wet months the temple roads are fine, but the steep path at Wat Khao Tham gets slick. Flip-flops are a bad choice for it in any weather.