Ajahn Tim of Wat Chang Hai
For many collectors, Wat Chang Hai immediately suggests Luang Pu Thuat amulets. Ajahn Tim Dhammatharo (พระอาจารย์ทิม ธมฺมธโร) spent years teaching, administering and rebuilding the monastery, as well as overseeing the making and consecration of Thuat amulets. As these objects travelled, devotees in other regions came to know both the temple and its abbot.
Born Tim Phrompradu on 21 August B.E. 2455, he came from Na Pradu in Pattani. His parents, Inthong and Num, had six children. At nine he entered the care of Phra Daeng Dhammachoto, abbot of Wat Na Pradu, to live and study there. His teacher later held the title Phra Khru Phattharakon Kowit.
Tim became a novice at eighteen, then disrobed to help his parents farm. Ordained at Wat Na Pradu on 7 June B.E. 2476, he received the name Dhammatharo. Phra Khru Phibun Samanawat of Wat Muchalinthawapi Wihan served as preceptor, Phra Athikan Phut Tissaro as kammavacacariya and Phra Athikan Kaeo as anusavanacariya, each carrying out a distinct role in his ordination.
Study and a fellow monk
After two rains retreats at Wat Na Pradu, Tim studied at Wat Muchalinthawapi Wihan, also called Wat Tuyong, in Pattani's Nong Chik district. He subsequently returned to teach religious studies at his former temple. From his childhood as a temple pupil through his own studies and teaching, monastic education remained part of his daily life.
Ajahn Nong Dhammabhuto was a fellow student and companion in temple work. Wat Na Pradu's abbot Phor Than Phon recalled that the two studied in the same tradition and worked together, building a Thai-style wooden monastic residence in B.E. 2483. Their association continued into the Thuat amulet project: Nong helped prepare materials and press images, while Tim managed temple affairs and conducted consecrations.
Wat Na Pradu was formerly Wat Kanthiwan, with its renaming recorded on 20 January B.E. 2500. Tim deeply respected its former abbot, Luang Pho Pan, who also had devotees in Kedah. After Pan’s death, disciples brought his ashes to Wat Baka Bata there for veneration.
Wartime hospitality and rebuilding
Tim became acting abbot of Wat Chang Hai in B.E. 2484 and was formally appointed in B.E. 2491. Facilities were modest, and he continued travelling to teach at Na Pradu. During the Japanese wartime presence, the railway beside the temple became a military transport route, disrupting local life. According to local biography, Tim arranged food and accommodation for travellers seeking shelter at the monastery.
His post-war work included the ordination and preaching halls, monastic residences, bell tower, Thuat devotional buildings and reliquary, alongside expanded grounds. Local biography also records a two-storey, Thai-roofed Wat Chang Hai school. Having received his own early education at a temple, he now helped provide a place for others to learn while caring for the monastic community and restoring its buildings.
A local study preserved by the Thailand Research Fund gives the project a fuller scale: preaching and ordination halls, a dining hall, bell tower, eight residences for monks and novices, an abbot's residence, a shrine for Thuat's image, an ash reliquary and a boundary wall. It also records land bought west of the temple to enlarge its grounds, and land across the railway for a two-storey school building. The building was nine metres wide and fifty-four metres long, with a Thai tiled roof; after costing more than one million baht, it was handed to the state for local children as Somdet Luang Pho Thuat Yiap Nam Thale Chuet School. These works gave post-war temple life, resident monks and community education room to continue together.
Temple history recounts that Tim and Nong planned to rebuild Thuat's reliquary. Excavation revealed a decaying brass vessel holding cloth-wrapped ashes believed to be Thuat's. Fearing that handling would damage it, they left the remains undisturbed and enclosed the old stupa within a new one.
Donations and amulet fundraising sustained construction. The temple received its ordination-boundary grant in B.E. 2500. Tim's ecclesiastical appointments also developed: the title Phra Khru Wisaisophon in B.E. 2499, a promotion in B.E. 2508 and appointment as an ordination preceptor in B.E. 2509.
Dreams and the first Thuat amulets
Anan Khananurak (อนันต์ คณานุรักษ์) was a lay supporter who helped finance the temple's amulets. His descendants recount a dream from B.E. 2495: Thuat gave him a medicinal pill, placed a ceremonial headband on him and departed towards Wat Chang Hai. Anan believed the elder had accepted him as a disciple and was calling him to future service at the temple.
In B.E. 2497, Anan discussed financing the ordination hall with Tim and began preparations for an image of Thuat. In the family's account, Anan had seen a vision of a dark, elderly monk seated on a lotus. The relative entrusted with carving the model initially struggled, then reportedly received guidance in a dream and gradually completed the image.
Tim and Nong planned the amulet project together, with Anan funding it and monks from several temples helping prepare materials and press the images. An account quoting a funeral volume dates the start to 19 March B.E. 2497. By 15 April, 64,000 of the intended 84,000 had been made; time ran short before the consecration on 18 April. Gathering materials, pressing and consecrating were successive stages of the undertaking.
Consecration stories and wider devotion
A ritual tradition tells of Tim invoking Thuat and the elders Si, Thong and Chan to bless the work. Another account says that he sought guidance in meditation and received the name referring to Thuat turning seawater fresh beneath his feet. This describes devotion and spiritual communication with earlier teachers, rather than instruction from someone living in Tim's own era.
Another story concerns wax pellets Tim made from candle remnants beside the stupa and gave to temple boys. The boys reportedly held them in their mouths and tested sharp blades against one another without injury. Alarmed on hearing this, Tim summoned them, reprimanded them and forbade further dangerous tests.
For the B.E. 2505 metal issue, Anan's descendant recalls Prince Chaloemphon Thikhamphon inviting him to discuss production. A reported vision advised replacing fragile herbal material with metal. The family record described in the interview places work at the temple on 16–19 May, with distribution in Tim's residence at 9 a.m. on the nineteenth.
A story about the prince's support recounts that he wore a B.E. 2497 Thuat amulet given by Anan. His car overturned, yet he reportedly escaped without injury. His devotion deepened, and when Tim and Anan prepared another issue in B.E. 2505, he offered his patronage.
Devotees also tell of wearers surviving crashes, falls and gunfire. These accounts express hopes for protection and continue to travel with the tradition of Thuat amulets.
A Chinese collector tale links a B.E. 2505 amulet to a hired killer. After three days seeking a merchant, he found a monk beside the luggage at a station. The monk urged him to change and gave him a packet containing a Thuat amulet. Reportedly, he fled with his family that night and began earning his living tending fruit trees.
Besides meeting production costs, Anan helped raise money through amulets for the hall and school, and supplied Thuat yantra cloths to soldiers and police who needed them. Monks, local families, donors and devotees all contributed to the rebuilding and to the circulation of these objects.
A reproduced passage attributed to the first edition of the Life of Luang Pho Thuat, dated 5 February B.E. 2505, preserves Tim’s blessing for readers. He invoked Thuat’s protection from danger and wished them happiness and prosperity, expressing his devotion in print as well as through sacred objects.
Final years and surviving memories
Tim developed oesophageal cancer in B.E. 2510 and died on 30 November B.E. 2512, aged fifty-seven. His close disciple Phra Amnuai Nandiyo and Tim's brother Phoem Phrompradu helped care for him in a Bangkok hospital. Amnuai later shared memories of accompanying his teacher and making amulets, preserving glimpses of daily life beyond the monastic residence and consecration ceremonies.
Tim's teaching, building work and Thuat amulets continue to connect devotees in different places. The first B.E. 2497 issue already showed differences in moulds and materials; metal issues and other productions followed. Later objects bearing Wat Chang Hai's name are not all Tim's lifetime work: each issue has its own participants, period and production history.