Sangkhla Buri: The Land of Buddhism, Culture, and Unity

Sangkhla Buri is a tourist attraction that presents the cultures of Thai, Burmese, Mon, and Karen people. It is a district in Kanchanaburi province, which borders Burma. It is easy to travel from Bangkok to Sangkhla Buri; an hour and a half of driving will bring you to downtown Kanchanaburi, which is about 200 kilometers from Sangkhla Buri. The trip from Bangkok to Sangkhla Buri should take about three or four hours.

Sangkhla Buri is a must-visit place. It promises visitors satisfaction with the beautifully simple lifestyle of the local people and the places of interest, which include Thailand’s longest wooden bridge, the temple Wat Wang Wiwekaram, and a copy of the Buddha Gaya pagoda. The structures symbolize the unity of local people, who are inspired by their late venerable monk, Luangpho Uttama. The people of Sangkhla Buri have different origins, but they are not divided. On the contrary, they have lived together harmoniously for a long time and not many people know the history of their district.

Many years ago, as he was making a pilgrimage, Luangpho Uttama arrived in Ban Etong village of Tambon Pilok subdistrict in Sangkhla Buri. While he was staying at Wat Koh, a local temple, he learned that Mon people living in the area had immigrated from his native town, Malamaeng, and its vicinity in Burma. The monk brought the people to Ban Wang Kalang village, and their settlement created the Mon community in Sangkhla Buri.

In 1956, Luangpho Uttama, together with Mon and Karen villagers, built a pavilion-style temple, which was named Wat Wang Wiwekaram in 1962, with the approval of the Religious Affairs Department. Today, this beautiful temple, which is the spiritual center for Sangkhla Buri’s people, is well-known to tourists and is a site that must be visited.

Another must-see location is, of course, the longest wooden bridge in the country. Luangpho Uttama had it built across the Bi Khli River near a spot where three rivers join. The monk wanted the bridge to be a convenient path for local people, and it would allow him to reach the nearby old pagodas that he wanted to rebuild. The bridge is located about 1.5 kilometers north of Wat Wang Wiwekaram. The monk located the bridge on a bottleneck section of the Bi Khli River and it has a span of 40 meters.

The bridge was made from logs that traders had discarded because of their substandard sizes, as well as many logs that had fallen into a ravine. The monk asked villagers to use their elephants to drag the logs up from the ravine. Many people helped build the bridge to realize the intention of the revered monk. He used the donations for buying nails and paying for labor; unskilled workers earned 20 baht a day while skilled ones received a wage of 35 baht. The monk did not have to buy bolts because some factory owners donated them. The bridge thus cost less than 50,000 baht and was completed in two months. When the bridge was nearly completed, the monk had border patrol police clear nearby bushes. The cleared ground revealed three small pagodas. They represented Mon architecture, with their crown-shaped pinnacles. They were believed to have been built jointly by Thai and Mon people during the period of their battle against nine Burmese armies early in the Rattanakosin era. Like the pagodas, the wood bridge symbolizes the cooperation and unity of the local people who collectively built it.

As for the copy of Buddha Gaya pagoda, this project was not so straightforward. Luangpho Uttama first planned to rebuild a large nearby pagoda in 1975, but the Fine Arts Department did not approve the plan. The monk had raised a fund of nearly 100,000 baht from public donations, as he had not expected a problem with the Department. With the money in hand, the monk was worried, so he turned to another plan, which was to rebuild the three small pagodas near the wooden bridge – but the Fine Arts Department did not approve the second plan, either. It did not even allow the monk to have the area surrounding the three pagodas cleared, for fear that people would dig up the site for antiques.

Therefore, the monk decided to have a whole new pagoda built. He chose to copy the Buddha Gaya pagoda, for its beauty and importance in symbolizing the Lord Buddha. He designed the reproduced pagoda from pictures he had taken of the real Buddha Gaya pagoda, located in India. The copied pagoda is located some 50 meters away from the old pagoda that he was not allowed to rebuild. The construction started in 1977 and took years to complete.

The copy of Buddha Gaya pagoda, the wooden bridge named Uttamanusorn, and the community of Mon people in Sangkhla Buri district are the legacies of Luangpho Uttama’s perseverance. Today his body rests peacefully in a glass coffin placed inside a seven-pinnacled wooden pavilion. Mon artists and scholars nationwide joined forces to create the beautiful carvings that reflect the style of Mon decoration. This wooden pavilion is situated in the compound of Wat Wang Wiwekaram temple in Moo 2, Tambon Nong Loo subdistrict of Sangkhla Buri district in Kanchanaburi province. It is the place where Buddhists can pay respect to the late revered monk and his contributions to the people of Sangkhla Buri. Today, Sangkhla Buri welcomes all visitors with its well-maintained, beautiful cultures and lifestyles.

Story: Yuwadee Waraporn
Photos: Somsak Kulsangcharoen