| WAT WIHAN KLAEP (วัดวิหานแกลบ) |
| Wat Wihan Klaep is situated on the city island in a remote area slightly north of Queen Sri Nakharin Park. To its east is Khlong Tho. Wat Wihan Klaep is located in a swampy area that is prone to flooding. A small lake is located nearby it. Unfortunately, the land around this monastery is used as a dumping grounds and a place to burn garbage. As a result, the remains of this monastery have greatly eroded. There is only a small shrine in situ. This consists of four wooden posts and a tin roof. Below this structure is a single Buddha image in the Taming Mara pose. The Buddha is gold-painted, and the pedestal is in the colorful style of the Ratanakosin period. Fragments of an older Buddha image are situated on the floor of the shrine. This shrine is all that remains of Wat Wihan Klaep. The area around the former monastery has been contaminated with modern debris, so future excavations on site would be problematic. Wat Wihan Klaep was named after a canal that flowed in front of it along an east/west axis. This water system connected with canals to its north. On recent maps these feeder canals are sometimes labeled: Khlong Fang and Khlong Chang Maha Chai (though they probably had other names as well). The temple’s location might have served as a place for water runoff during flood season and a reservoir during drier times. It is portrayed in the middle of a swamp on Phraya Boran Rachathanin’s 1926 map and the Fine Arts Department’s 1993. This saturation by water has greatly contributed to the monastery’s destruction. This is little known about the history of Wat Wihan Klaep. Western cartographers referred to the area around this site as a place for fields, gardening, and orchards. The land had not been well-developed or heavily populated. M. de La Mare referred to this area as "Quartier Champêtre". Wat Wihan Klaep is most likely one of the unnamed pagodas drawn on his map in 1751. |
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| Text & photographs by Ken May - September 2009 |
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| Addendum Wat Wihan Klaep is much likely Wat Jan on a mid-19th century map. The latter map shows Wat Jan (1) located in a pond in the middle of Khlong Klaep also called Khlong Tha Phra. Both maps, Phraya Boran Rachathanin's map and the oldest map, show the temple in the same north-south axis in relation to Wat Sangkha Tha. The mid-19th century map indicates the presence of a chedi. The Fine Arts Department shows the location of Wat Wihan Klaep on a 1974 map, but later maps (1995, 2007) are not revealing its position anymore. Wat Wihan Klaep must have been situated in geographical coordinates: 14° 20' 52.40" N, 100° 33' 13.47" E. Footnotes: (1) Diospyros decandra or gold apple. |
| Addendum & maps by Tricky Vandenberg Updated March 2016 |
| (Pavilion in the vicinity of the former site) |
| (Buddha image in situ) |
| (View of the area) |
| (Detail of a 19th century map - Courtesy of the Sam Chao Phraya Museum - map is orientated S-N) |
| (Detail of Phraya Boran Rachathanin's map - Anno 1926) |
| (Detail of a 1974 Fine Arts Department map - Courtesy Dr. Surat Lertlum, Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy) |
