Wat Nong Wang and Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon: Khon Kaen's Nine-Storey Pagoda
If you only climb one thing in Khon Kaen, make it this. On the southern edge of the city centre, beside the big lake of Bueng Kaen Nakhon, Wat Nong Wang (also spelled Wat Nong Waeng) holds Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon — a nine-storey pagoda, 80 metres tall on a 50-metre square base, that is unlike any other stupa in Thailand. It is part temple, part museum, part viewing tower, and a complete introduction to Isan in a single building. A Temple as Old as the City Wat Nong Wang was founded in 1789, the same era Khon Kaen itself was established, and it later became a royal temple. The great pagoda is much newer: it was built to celebrate both the Golden Jubilee of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the 200th anniversary of Khon Kaen, and inaugurated in 1996. The nine floors honour Rama IX, and the design mixes Dvaravati and Indochina styles, its tapering shape modelled in part on Phra That Kham Kaen, the province's older sacred stupa, with a spire shaped like an Isan fishnet. Photo: Newsabra,...