AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Wat Makluea Mai (วัดมะเกลือใหม่) is a long-established Buddhist temple in the quiet rural subdistrict of Maklua Mai, on the outskirts of Sung Noen in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Registered as a Mahanikaya temple in 1897, it serves as the spiritual heart of its local community and was recognized in 2023 by Thailand's National Office of Buddhism as a Model Development Temple — an honor reflecting decades of steady growth in its buildings, grounds, and role in religious life.↗↗↗
Visitors and pilgrims are drawn here by the revered Luang Pho Phet Buddha image and, more recently, by the striking new Phra Chedi Sri Phuttha Bucha stupa, built to enshrine relics of the Buddha. The temple complex offers an authentic experience of Isan Buddhist devotion, away from the tourist circuit but easily reachable from Korat city.↗↗
A Temple Rooted in Village Life
Wat Makluea Mai sits along Provincial Highway 2299 in the third village of Tambon Maklua Mai, a farming community whose name translates roughly as New Olive — a reference to the local fruit tree. The temple was formally registered in Buddhist Era 2440 (1897) and received its royal boundary grant (Wisungkhamsima), consecrating its ordination hall, on 8 September 1946. Its abbot, Phra Khru Panya Watthanakij, also serves as deputy ecclesiastical head of Sung Noen district, indicating the temple's standing in the wider monastic hierarchy.
