Wat Thap Sila (วัดทัพศิลา)

Thai. ‘Temple of the Stone Army’ or ‘Temple of the Host of Boulders’. Name of a small Theravada Buddhist community temple in Kanchanaburi Province. The name evokes the image of a massed host of stones or an assemblage of boulders, and reflects the temple’s close relationship with its surrounding geological landscape, especially its ‘Sacred Elephant Boulders’, a group of large natural rock formations partially embedded in the ground and sheltered beneath an octagonal-roofed structure within the temple compound. These stone formations, whose shapes are popularly perceived as resembling elephants arranged in formation, reinforce the toponymic concept of a stone army. Known in Thai as Hin Thep Chang (fig.), their veneration reflects a broader pattern within Thai religious landscapes, in which Buddhist practice intersects with vernacular beliefs, animistic traditions, and the attribution of spiritual potency to distinctive natural features. According to a monk at the temple, the elephant-shaped boulders are believed to embody the souls of war elephants that fell in battle on this site during Thailand’s past conflicts. Its architectural layout follows conventional Thai monastic planning, comprising modest religious structures and auxiliary pavilions that support communal worship, merit-making practices, and local ritual life. Due to its location along the border with Myanmar, the temple has a large community of Mon people, and besides the Hin Thep Chang rock formations, the temple features a replica (fig.) of the Golden Rock (fig.), a renowned Buddhist pilgrimage site in Kyaihtiyo (fig.), in Myanmar's Mon State, allowing the Burmese immigrant community to feel somewhat at home. 回