Somdej Bang Khun Phrom: History, Moulds and Crypt

Somdej Bang Khun Phrom (พระสมเด็จบางขุนพรหม) is the name Thai collectors give to the Somdej-type powder tablets that were sealed in the principal chedi of Wat Mai Amataros, also called Wat Bang Khun Phrom, in Bangkok. Thai Wikipedia's entry on the temple says that Somdej Phra Phutthachan (Toh Phrommarangsi), abbot of Wat Rakhang Khositaram, presided over the making of the tablets at the request of Samian Tra Duang, ancestor of the Thanakoses family, so that they could be placed in a chedi [1]. Kom Chad Luek puts the period at about BE 2411 to 2413 (roughly 1868 to 1870 CE) [6].

The tablets are best known for the way they reached the market. Some were taken out through the chedi's air vents by thieves before the temple opened the crypt officially on 27 November BE 2500 (1957 CE) [3], [8]. That split gives collectors their two basic groups, Kru Kao (old crypt) and Kru Mai (new crypt). Claims about spiritual benefit are matters of devotional belief and are not assessed here.

Key facts

The temple

Thai Wikipedia says Wat Mai Amataros, also known as Wat Bang Khun Phrom, is a commoners' temple (wat ratsadon) of the Mahanikaya order in Ban Phan Thom subdistrict, Phra Nakhon district, Bangkok, on Soi Samsen 8 [1]. It was built in the Thonburi period, around BE 2321 (1778 CE). The builder is not recorded, and the same year the temple received the royal grant of temple land (visungkhamasima) [1].

The temple's first name was Wat Wara Ma Taram. It later became Wat Amattayarot, also written Wat Amritayarot, and the entry says the name Wat Mai Amataros was in use from BE 2460 (1917 CE) [1]. In BE 2411 to 2413 the temple was restored, a project the entry says began under Somdej Toh [1]. In the reign of King Rama V a road was built through the compound and it became two temples: Wat Bang Khun Phrom Nok, which is today's Wat Mai Amataros, and Wat Bang Khun Phrom Nai, which is Wat Inthawihan [1]. The boundary of the ordination hall was re-consecrated between 4 and 10 January BE 2509 (1966 CE) [1].

Somdej Toh and Samian Tra Duang

Thai Wikipedia's biography gives Toh's dates as 17 April BE 2331 to 22 June BE 2415 (1788 to 1872 CE), and says he held the abbacy of Wat Rakhang from BE 2395 until his death at the age of 84 [2]. Around BE 2410 he became the person in charge of building the large Buddha image at Wat Inthawihan, which was then called Wat Bang Khun Phrom Nai, and he died in the old sala there [2].

Kom Chad Luek describes how Samian Tra Duang came into the story. While Toh was building the image at Wat Inthawihan, Samian Tra Duang, the founder of the Thanakoses surname, and his relatives offered themselves as Toh's lay supporters [7]. In BE 2411, according to the same column, he restored Wat Mai Amataros and renovated its chedi as a family chedi, building two: a larger one to hold votive tablets, in keeping with the old custom of continuing the religion, and a smaller one for the remains of his ancestors [7]. Work ran from BE 2411 to BE 2413 [7]. Another Kom Chad Luek column calls him a government clerk of the "samian tra" kind in the reign of King Rama V and names him as the person who invited Toh to make tablets for the chedi [6].

Post Today gives a similar account, adding that the chedi was still under construction in BE 2413 when Samian Tra Duang asked Toh to make the tablets [3].

What the tablets are made of and how they were made

Thai Wikipedia says the tablets were made from the powders known as Ittije, Pathamang, Trinisingha and Maharaj, and that Toh personally pounded the powder, mixed in the special powders and consecrated the tablets himself [1]. The same entry dates this to BE 2413 to 2415 [1]. That is four named powders; no other readable source lists them.

One Post Today column on a Song Chedi tablet that had been washed but still kept some crypt crust mentions tang-iu oil (น้ำมันตังอิ๊ว) as an example of an ingredient, and says the "rotten-looking" blotches on the back come from components such as tang-iu oil sublimating [5]. That is a collector's explanation of a surface feature, not a laboratory finding.

On the moulds, Kom Chad Luek says all nine Bang Khun Phrom patterns were newly carved, each as a single-piece mould whose edges were cut and whose back was scraped off by hand, by the royal craftsmen known as chang sip mu of Rattanakosin [7]. The same column says the key model was the Wat Rakhang pattern, which is why the two groups look so alike [7]. The hand-trimming matters to collectors: Daily News captions on old-crypt tablets repeatedly point to scrape marks on the back and flared, hand-cut edges as expected features [12], [13].

The chedi and the looting

Kom Chad Luek says the tablets were placed in the temple's principal chedi [6]; no readable source gives a count for the original deposit.

According to Post Today, the old-crypt group takes its name from theft. Thieves lowered a ball of clay on the end of a cord through an air vent so that tablets stuck to it, and also poured water through the vent so that the water would loosen the grip of the tablets on each other. Because the thieves mostly reached the upper part of the deposit, the tablets they obtained were often beautiful and complete [3]. Daily News describes a similar method during the heyday of "tok phra" (fishing for amulets): the thieves broke into the chedi to make a hollow, then lowered clay, torch resin or sticky tree gum on a cord to the bottom of the crypt and pulled tablets up, getting more or fewer on each attempt [8]. The sources that could be read do not give dates for these thefts.

The opening of 27 November BE 2500

Post Today says that after repeated illegal digs the temple asked the Fine Arts Department to take charge and open the crypt officially. General Praphas Charusathien was invited to chair the opening ceremony, which took place on 27 November BE 2500 [3]. The tablets taken out then are what collectors call Kru Mai, "new crypt" [3].

After sorting, only a little over 3,000 tablets were in good, attractive condition; the rest were stuck together in lumps or broken, almost without exception [3]. Kom Chad Luek adds that dealers of the time did not accept the new-crypt tablets, and that at the opening they were sorted into nine moulds [6].

Kru Kao and Kru Mai

The two names refer to how a tablet left the crypt: before the BE 2500 opening, or at it [3], [8]. The features below are what Thai columnists use to tell them apart. They are tendencies reported by writers, not tests, and exceptions are described in the same columns.

The rubber stamp. The clearest marker in the columns is a rubber stamp on the back of Kru Mai tablets. Daily News writes that the temple stamped the tablets from the official opening with a rubber stamp as a mark, and that Kru Kao pieces carry none [8]. One caption says the stamp on the back of a new-crypt piece had become faint with time [9], and another says every new-crypt tablet has the stamp on the back and no old-crypt tablet does [10]. The sources that could be read do not describe the stamp's colour or design.

The crust. The deposit called khi kru or khrap kru (crypt crust) is the second marker. Daily News says old-crypt tablets tend not to have it, while new-crypt tablets tend to be thickly encrusted [8]. Post Today says Kru Mai tablets generally carry a rather thick crust and often stick together in lumps; a well-preserved piece has a scaly surface with a whitish film and a froth like tofu skin (fong tao hu) [3]. The rule is not absolute. Daily News describes an old-crypt Phim Than Khu with dense, dark brown-black crust and scattered tofu-skin froth [13], and an old-crypt Sangkhati with ears whose crust looks like stingray skin [12].

The paste and its age. For old-crypt tablets, a Daily News column on a Sangkhati with ears describes a dry, old, hard white paste, natural wrinkling and shrinkage, and crust that is not messy [11]. Of a new-crypt Phim Yai, Daily News says the wrinkles and shrinkage come from the heat and humidity in the crypt [10]. The same paper says a Bang Khun Phrom tablet and a Wat Rakhang tablet differ in how smooth and soft the paste feels and in fineness, and that tablets that spent long in the crypt tend to sit slightly skewed [9].

These are newspaper captions to collectors' photographs: a vocabulary, not a substitute for examination by a recognised specialist.

The nine moulds

Kom Chad Luek lists nine Bang Khun Phrom moulds [7]. The Thai names and their literal meanings are:

1. Phim Yai (พิมพ์ใหญ่), the large mould, also called Phim Phra Prathan, the principal-image mould [4], [6], [7].
2. Phim Song Chedi (พิมพ์ทรงเจดีย์), "chedi form".
3. Phim Ket Bua Toom (พิมพ์เกศบัวตูม), "lotus-bud crown".
4. Phim Sen Dai (พิมพ์เส้นด้าย), "thread-line".
5. Phim Than Saem (พิมพ์ฐานแซม), "inserted base".
6. Phim Sangkhati (พิมพ์สังฆาฏิ), named for the sangkhati, the folded outer monastic robe.
7. Phim Prok Pho (พิมพ์ปรกโพธิ์), "Bodhi-leaf canopy".
8. Phim Than Khu (พิมพ์ฐานคู่), "double base".
9. Phim Ok Khrut (พิมพ์อกครุฑ), "Garuda chest".

What the readable sources add about individual moulds is limited.

Phim Yai. Kom Chad Luek calls the principal-image mould the most expensive of the nine, reporting in 2012 that a piece had once been rented, in the sense of changing hands, for as much as five million baht, and that the cheapest of the nine, the Prok Pho, still fetched high six-figure sums in baht [6]. The column gives no sale date for that figure, so treat it as a reported peak, not a price list.

Phim Sen Dai. Post Today, which writes the name as Phim Than Sen Dai (พิมพ์ฐานเส้นด้าย), says Sen Dai has the most mould blocks of any pattern, seven, and resembles Phim Yai but with thinner lines in the arch, the base and the figure, which is where the name comes from [3]. Kom Chad Luek writes it as พิมพ์เส้นด้าย [7]. A Daily News caption shows an old-crypt Sen Dai still carrying original gold leaf from the crypt [14].

Phim Ket Bua Toom. Kom Chad Luek says this is one of the patterns that match a Wat Rakhang pattern, that the two are presumed to be the same design, and that old-crypt examples are therefore nicknamed "Phra Song Khlong" [6]. Daily News describes the new-crypt Ket Bua Toom as a rare, attractive pattern with few good examples in circulation [8].

Phim Sangkhati. The mould appears in both with-ears (mi hu) and without-ears (mai mi hu) forms in the Daily News captions [11], [12]. One caption says the with-ears old-crypt form was nicknamed "sangkhati hu chang" (elephant-ear Sangkhati) and is hard to see [12].

No readable source confirms which of the nine, if any, are absent from Wat Rakhang [6], [7].

How Bang Khun Phrom relates to Wat Rakhang

Kom Chad Luek says Toh had Somdej tablets made at three places: Wat Rakhang, Wat Bang Khun Phrom and Wat Chaiyo Worawihan in Ang Thong [6]. The Wat Rakhang tablets, according to the same column, date from about BE 2409 and were given out to villagers, while the Bang Khun Phrom tablets of about BE 2411 to 2413 were made for the chedi [6]. The designs overlap, as the Ket Bua Toom entry above shows.

The BE 2509 issue

The temple made a later series from fragments of the opening. Post Today says the BE 2509 Bang Khun Phrom batch was started in October BE 2508 and finished in late November BE 2508, although it is known as the 2509 issue. A ceremony of pounding the powder and pressing the tablets took place in the ordination hall, and the abbot, Phrakhru Boriharn Khunwat, pressed the first tablet [4].

The main materials were broken pieces of Bang Khun Phrom tablets and crypt earth from the BE 2500 opening, together with blessed powders from various masters, lime, shell lime, tang-iu oil, honey, lotus pollen and pikul flowers [4]. The masters who sat in meditation over the tablets included Luang Pu Nak of Wat Rakhang, Luang Phor Ngern of Wat Don Yai Hom in Nakhon Pathom, Luang Phor Te Khongthong of Wat Sam Ngam in Nakhon Pathom, Ajahn Tim of Wat Chang Hai in Pattani and Ajahn Amphon of Wat Prasat Bunyawat in Bangkok [4].

There were two kinds of offering. Tablets for the chedi were made available at one baht each and stamped with the word "บรรจุ" (enshrined) on the back, in a total of 84,000. Tablets for individual keeping were made available at ten baht each, to be stamped with the chedi mark by the holder, or in boxed sets of eleven moulds (leaving out the reclining one) for 100 baht, again in a total of 84,000 [4].

The batch used twelve moulds: Phim Yai or Phra Prathan, Sen Dai, Song Chedi, Ket Bua Toom, Sangkhati, Prok Pho, Than Khu, Than Saem, Ok Khrut, Khanaen, Chan Loi and Sai Yat (reclining) [4]. Several mould-makers worked on them, including volunteers who cast blocks from original crypt tablets, which come out slightly smaller and shallower than the originals [4]. Plaster, white cement and dental rubber were used for the blocks, and blocks that cracked were replaced, so one pattern can come from several moulds.

Post Today, citing a temple record, says the tablets for the chedi were to be laid in the large chedi in layers over sand, with ten air vents and six silver plates inscribed "enshrined 2509" [4]. The column, dated 10 May 2019, says fine examples of the Phim Yai Thalu Sum were then valued at around the middle of the hundred-thousands in baht [4].

Where the sources disagree

The dates are the main point of disagreement. Kom Chad Luek says the tablets were made about BE 2411 to 2413 [6] and that the chedi was finished in BE 2413 [7]. Post Today says the chedi was still being built in BE 2413 [3]. Thai Wikipedia says BE 2413 to 2415 for the pounding and consecration [1]. Toh died on 22 June BE 2415 [2], so all three ranges are possible; "about BE 2411 to 2415" is the safest citation.