Phra Buddha Chinnarat: History, Sukhothai Art, and Indo-China Amulets

Phra Buddha Chinnarat (พระพุทธชินราช) is a bronze Buddha image in the Subduing Mara posture (Pang Mara Vichai), enshrined in the western viharn of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Woramahawihan in Phitsanulok Province [1]. Thai Wikipedia describes it as one of the most beautiful Buddha images in Thailand, the one most often copied, and one that Thai people most often travel to worship [1].

This article treats the image as an object of art history: where it stands, what is known and disputed about its date, how it has been gilded and copied, and two twentieth-century objects bearing its likeness, the BE 2460 (1917) medal and the BE 2485 (1942) Indo-China edition. Where sources disagree, or a figure could not be checked, the text says so. Claims about spiritual effect appear only as what a named source says people believe; this article does not assess them.

The temple and its setting

Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, usually called Wat Yai ("the Big Temple"), stands on the eastern bank of the Nan River, directly opposite the Phitsanulok provincial hall [2]. It is a first-class royal monastery of the Woramahawihan category, a rank conferred by King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) in BE 2458 (1915) [2].

No record fixes when the temple was founded. Thai Wikipedia says it is presumed to be older than the Sukhothai period, citing a Sukhothai inscription that says Pho Khun Si Nao Namthum built a relic stupa [2]. The Northern Chronicle (Phongsawadan Nuea), quoted on the same page, says that around BE 1900 King Si Thammatripitaka, whom the quoted passage identifies with Maha Thammaracha I, built the temple with a central prang, four viharns and a double cloister, and ordered three Buddha images cast as the principal images of three viharns [2]. English Wikipedia gives 1357 and King Lithai as the founder [4]. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, quoted in both Wikipedia articles, wrote that the temple was probably first built when Sukhothai was the capital, though repaired many times [2][4].

Two features of the compound are well documented. The viharn that houses the image is a gabled hall of the "song rong" type, built in the Sukhothai period and kept in repair to the present day [2]. Its mother-of-pearl door leaves, given as about 1 m wide and 4.5 m high, were made in BE 2299 (1756) in the reign of King Borommakot, and the older carved wooden doors were sent to the viharn at Phra That Sila At [2]. English Wikipedia calls them a masterpiece of late Ayutthaya art [4]. When Burmese forces under Asawahun took Phitsanulok in BE 2318 (1775) they burned the Chan Palace and the eastern principal viharn, but not the western viharn of Phra Buddha Chinnarat [1].

Who made it, and when: a disputed question

Thai Wikipedia states plainly that there is no firm evidence of when Phra Buddha Chinnarat was made [1]. Four accounts exist, and they should not be blended into one.

The Northern Chronicle. The chronicle was recompiled in BE 2350 (1807) by Phra Wichianprichā (Noi) from earlier northern tales [1][8]. It credits a Chiang Saen king, Si Thammatripitaka, with founding Phitsanulok and casting three images: Phra Buddha Chinnasi, Phra Si Satsada and Phra Buddha Chinnarat [1]. A Silpa-Watthanatham article (first published online on 31 May 2025) summarises the story: craftsmen came from Sajjanalai and Hariphunchai, two of the images were cast successfully, but Phra Buddha Chinnarat had to be recast again and again until the fourth attempt, when, in the chronicle's words, the metal ran full "by the power of Indra" [8]. This is a legend, not a record of how the image was cast; the chronicle gives BE 1500 for the successful pour [8].

King Mongkut's essay. In BE 2409 (1866) King Mongkut (Rama IV) published an essay on the three images in Wachirayan Wiset, based on the chronicle [1]. It adds a fourth image, Phra Luea, and dates Phra Buddha Chinnasi and Phra Si Satsada to BE 1498 and Phra Buddha Chinnarat to BE 1500 [1].

Prince Damrong's art-historical view. Prince Damrong judged the images to be Sukhothai work: a Sukhothai style mixed with Chiang Saen style but more developed than either [1]. He thought one craftsman made Phra Buddha Chinnarat and Phra Buddha Chinnasi, and Phra Si Satsada another [1]. He proposed about BE 1900 (1357 CE) in the reign of Maha Thammaracha I (Lithai), arguing that Lithai, renowned for his command of the Tripitaka, is the king the chronicle calls Si Thammatripitaka [1]. Thai Wikipedia calls this the most widely accepted view [1]. The date 1357 therefore rests on scholarly inference [1].

An Ayutthaya proposal. Another scholar, Pichaya Sumchinda, has argued for an Ayutthaya date, from the pattern of the aureole frame and the viharn architecture of the reign of King Narai (1656-1689) [1].

Thai Wikipedia adds that the aureole frame (ruen kaew), the two figures at the Buddha's lap and the small urna mark between the brows are believed to be later than the image itself, probably Ayutthaya work, judging by their ornament and architecture [1].

Phra Luea and the sister images

Thai Wikipedia's temple article tells the Phra Luea story this way: after the three large images were cast, Lithai ordered the leftover bronze gathered and cast into a small Maravijaya image, a little over one sok across the lap, called Phra Luea ("the leftover"). The kiln bricks were heaped on a pedestal with three bodhi trees (the "Pho Sam Sao") and a small viharn built among them [2]. The page cites no source, so this is best read as temple tradition.

The sister images left Phitsanulok. In BE 2372 (1829) the Front Palace prince Maha Sakdi Polasep had Phra Buddha Chinnasi moved to Bangkok, and at about the same time a monk moved Phra Si Satsada [1]. English Wikipedia describes the shrine hall of Wat Bowonniwet Vihara in Bangkok as the home of Phra Phuttha Chinnasi [10]. English Wikipedia's Wat Yai article says the sister images remain at Wat Yai [4]; the Thai and Bowonniwet articles say otherwise for Phra Buddha Chinnasi, and this article follows them. Where Phra Si Satsada now stands could not be confirmed. Phra Buddha Chinnarat itself was never moved [1].

The image: form and materials

The Thai Wikipedia infobox describes a bronze (samrit) image, lacquered and gilded, in the Maravijaya posture, of the Sukhothai school and the "Phra Buddha Chinnarat" group [1]. That group is one of four into which Sukhothai Buddha images are classed, linked to a Phitsanulok workshop tradition [1].

The recorded dimensions are a width of 5 sok 1 khuep 5 niu and a height of 7 sok [1]. English Wikipedia gives conversions of 1 sok = 50 cm, 1 khuep = 25 cm and 1 niu = 2.45 cm, and says the width is measured across the lap [4]. On those conversions the width is about 2.87 m and the height about 3.5 m, so the figures are approximate.

Thai Wikipedia's description of the features is specific [1]. The hair is in large spiral curls, topped by a long flame-shaped finial. The face is fairly round, not the long oval of the main Sukhothai group, with a small urna mark between the brows. The long sanghati (outer robe) ends in a notched edge set with glass. The four fingers of each hand are of equal length, a trait Thai Wikipedia calls characteristic of the whole group (thikhangkhuli). Cast bronze figures of Alawaka (at the Buddha's right) and Vessuwan (at the left) sit beside the image, and a carved, lacquered and gilded teak aureole frame (ruen kaew) stands behind it [1].

Gilding, honours and listings

The image was not gilded when it was made [1]. Thai Wikipedia records that in BE 2146 (1603) King Ekathotsarot visited Phitsanulok and had royal regalia beaten into gold leaf for it, the first gilding; more followed in BE 2444 (1901), when a diamond baldric was also offered, and in BE 2547 (2004) [1]. The Fine Arts Department registered the image in the Royal Gazette of 27 September 1936 [1].

The Bangkok replica at Wat Benchamabophit

Wat Benchamabophit Dusitwanaram was founded in 1899 as the royal temple of the Dusit Palace [1][9]. Thai Wikipedia quotes King Chulalongkorn: when the temple was built he searched the capital and the provinces for a principal image and found none as beautiful as Phra Buddha Chinnarat [1]. He did not move the original. It had never been taken anywhere, and he feared that the people of Phitsanulok would grieve, as they had when Phra Buddha Chinnasi was taken to Bangkok, so he had a copy cast instead [1]. The copy was cast in BE 2444 (1901) at the Pho Sam Sao, the site of the original casting, and brought to Bangkok by water on a raft [1].

English Wikipedia adds that Prince Damrong supervised the casting; the copy was cast in Phitsanulok from melted, decommissioned brass cannon; the casting began on 20 October 1901, and the finished image was enshrined at Wat Benchamabophit on 13 December 1901 [9]. Thai Wikipedia's separate article on the replica, which carries a notice that it lacks references, agrees on both dates and adds that the image was cast in sections and assembled in Bangkok at the Navy Department [3]. The temple is built of Italian marble [9].

The Phra Buddha Chinnarat National Museum

A national museum stands in the temple compound. English Wikipedia says it was first run by the temple, and that the Fine Arts Department proclaimed it a national museum in the Royal Gazette on 14 November 1961 [4]. Its displays include Buddha images, votive tablets and ceramics, much of it offered by lay people or recovered from excavations [4].

The BE 2460 medal

The first medal of Phra Buddha Chinnarat is dated BE 2460 (1917) [7]. The Khaosod amulet column that describes it, published on 20 November 2017, calls it the first edition of a medal with this image and says it was made as a souvenir of a royal visit to worship the image in about BE 2458, but finished and distributed in BE 2460 [7]. The column names King Rama V as the visitor, which cannot be right: Thai Wikipedia places BE 2458 in the reign of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) [2]. This article therefore does not rely on that detail.

The physical description in the column is more specific [7]. The medal is round, with a welded loop and a cylinder-style rim. The front shows the seated image on a double-lotus throne, with the words "Phra Phuttha-Chinnarat" on either side, and under the throne the letters Na, Pho, Cho and Ko, thought to stand for the shop that made it, Napha Charu Upakorn. Two sub-types of the front differ in whether the vowel sign in "Phuttha" is written horizontally (u-non) or vertically (u-tang). One back die shows a replica of the Ok-lao of the Phra Buddha Chinnarat viharn with four Khom characters; the other is lettered in five lines of Thai that read, in translation, as a souvenir obtained at the festival of homage to Phra Buddha Chinnarat in Phitsanulok. Only silver and copper pieces are recorded, and the column says the issue was small [7]. The column adds that the u-non front with the Ok-lao back is counted among the "Benjapakee" group of Buddha medals [7], a collector classification and not a historical record.

The BE 2485 (1942) Indo-China edition

Context and organisers

The name refers to the Franco-Thai War over parts of French Indochina, fought from October 1940 until a ceasefire on 28 January 1941 and formally ended by a peace treaty on 9 May 1941 [11]. A 2022 Komchadluek article describes it as a conflict between the Thai government under Plaek Phibunsongkhram and the French Indochina governor-general, Jean Decoux, and says Thailand won back part of the territory it had lost [6]. The casting of 1942 came a year after the fighting had ended, in the middle of the Second World War.

According to Komchadluek, the edition was made by the Buddhist Association (Phutthasamakhom) under its president, Rear Admiral Luang Thamrong Nawasawat, and its committee [5][6]. The committee planned only two forms: a larger Buddha image for veneration (phra bucha) and a smaller amulet (phra khrueang), with the Fine Arts Department helping to supervise the casting and design the dies [5][6]. The stated aim was that soldiers and civilians should have an amulet to carry during the Indochina war [5][6].

The casting and the consecration

The metal was poured at Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat in Phitsanulok on 1 February 1942 (BE 2485), which Komchadluek identifies as the fifth day of the waxing moon of the third lunar month [5][6]. The association then asked the Supreme Patriarch, Somdet Phra Sangkharat Pae Tissadevo of Wat Suthat, to hold a consecration [5][6]. It took place in the ubosot of Wat Suthat Thepwararam on 21 March 1942, with the Supreme Patriarch as chairman [5][6]. Chao Khun Si Sacchayanmuni (Sonth) was the principal organiser, and the pour was held according to Wat Suthat's formulas for making phra kring and phra chaiyawat images [5][6].

Komchadluek calls the ceremony unprecedented in scale and names well-known masters who contributed yantra sheets and took part in the blessing. Its list includes Luang Phor Chong of Wat Na Tang Nok, Luang Pu Nak of Wat Rakhang, Luang Phor Ding of Wat Bang Wua, Luang Phor Thongsuk of Wat Tanod Luang, Luang Phor Chaem of Wat Takong and Luang Phor Ee of Wat Sattahip, among seven more named masters, "and others" [5][6]. Neither article says how many masters attended, what metals were poured, or how many pieces were made [5][6].

What is not stated here

Collector sources give figures for the number of pieces cast and catalogues of die varieties (robe types, face types, base stamps). No source we could verify confirms them, so they are not repeated here; treat any exact mintage or die classification as unverified.

Authenticity and belief

Komchadluek's 2015 piece warns that modern forgeries of the Indo-China edition are now very close to genuine pieces, and advises buyers not to decide alone, to ask a trusted expert, or to ask the seller for a written guarantee of a refund if the piece proves not to be genuine [5]. The same piece reports that soldiers and civilians who carried the amulet in the Korean and Vietnam wars told many stories of surviving dangerous events, and presents these as accounts circulating among devotees [5].

The annual fair

Thai Wikipedia says the festival of Phra Buddha Chinnarat is held around Makha Bucha, the full-moon day of the third lunar month, for seven days and seven nights [1]; the temple page gives the waxing sixth to twelfth day of that month [2]. The two differ slightly, so check the temple's announcement for any year. The Phitsanulok dragon boat races, held outside the temple on the first weekend of October, are a separate event [4].

Key facts