Luang Pho I and his coastal temple

Luang Pho I and his coastal temple

Luang Pho I Phutthasaro, formally Phra Khru Worawet Muni, was the first abbot of Wat Sattahip in Chonburi. Chinese collector names include 龍婆夷 and 龍婆依, with 瓦薩達喜 used for the temple. His name is associated with palat khik, but also with a coastal monastery, its school and stories passed down by local residents.

Born I Thongkham on 1 October B.E. 2408 (1865), he was the son of Kham and Iang. Sattahip, in eastern Thailand, was his birthplace and later the community to which he returned to establish a temple. His long involvement in its religious life helps explain the respect he earned locally.

Ordination and teachers

He received full ordination at Wat Ang Sila Nok and the monastic name Phutthasaro. Phra Athikan Chan Chanthasaro of Wat Samet served as preceptor, Phra Ajahn Thim as kammavacacariya and Phra Ajahn Daeng as anusavanacariya. These were distinct ceremonial roles; they should not all be reduced to the same general label of an esoteric teacher.

His ordination age is disputed. Local educational material gives twenty-five; a collector-history compilation gives B.E. 2431 and twenty-three. The difference also affects calculations of his monastic seniority. Neither set of figures should be presented as uncontested.

Accounts describe study of discipline, ritual and meditation, forest travel, and instruction from Luang Pho Pan of Wat Bang Hia, also called Wat Khlong Dan. This was the teacher associated with tiger-tooth talismans, not his namesake at Wat Bang Nom Kho in Ayutthaya. Accounts disagree over the teacher with whom I spent his first six rains retreats.

Phra Ajahn Ngae recalled a king cobra threatening the monks near Cambodia. I reportedly stared until it stiffened and collapsed, still alive.

Building a temple and supporting education

In B.E. 2442, I and local residents established and developed Wat Sattahip, where he became the first abbot. Alongside religious ceremonies, the temple gradually took on an educational role. Local accounts remember his contribution to both the monastery and its school, rather than recording only his reputation for amulets and ritual knowledge.

Another Sattahip local-tourism account places the more detailed building story in B.E. 2450–2451. It says I's father went to Bangkok in 2450 to seek permission to build the temple, after which I, his father and local residents used nearby timber for posts and walls and fired Bang Pakong clay into roof tiles. The page says the main works were completed within five years, while the ordination hall, vihara and sermon hall came later. This differs from the B.E. 2442 establishment date above, so it is retained as a separate local version.

The temple school was called Bak Seng Setthanukun. Khun Charoen Phanit, or Seng Mangmi, and his relatives and friends contributed to its construction. It later moved and developed into Ban Sattahip School, known locally as Ban Na School. A local textbook also records Thammaprasop Hall's use as a library. Monks and residents shared the work through construction, donations and teaching.

Biographies date the school's first lessons in a thatched temple building to B.E. 2466. A funeral reception building erected in B.E. 2471 was subsequently converted into classrooms with donations from Seng Mangmi and his circle. I presided over the monastic part of its opening in B.E. 2472.

As enrolment grew, Nai Chai and Nang Phio Mangmi reportedly donated land east of the settlement. The Education Ministry and Navy funded new classrooms. Surrounding rice fields gave the relocated school its familiar name, Ban Na, before it became Ban Sattahip School. Accounts place the land donation in either B.E. 2483 or 2484; the year remains unresolved.

Named teachers also managed the school's daily work. The biography identifies San Sirimak as its early headteacher, with classes from preparatory primary through Prathom 4, and Angkai Intharakhom as the first headteacher of the later Ban Sattahip School.

A similarly named institution, Sattahip School, has a separate history. Its own account traces its beginnings to temporary classrooms at Laem Thian in B.E. 2479 for children of naval personnel and employees transferred to Sattahip. It was registered the following year as Sattahip Naval Station School. This naval-school chronology is distinct from the temple school that developed into Ban Sattahip School.

He also held responsibilities within the Sangha. In B.E. 2467 he became Sattahip's local ecclesiastical chief and an ordination preceptor. In B.E. 2484 he received the title Phra Khru Worawet Muni and jurisdiction over the then minor district. These were administrative and religious offices, distinct from the honorific descriptions later used by collectors.

Seafarers and wartime stories

A Royal Thai Navy memorial account identifies naval personnel and fishermen among his followers and recalls the Prince of Chumphon staying at the temple while considering a naval base location. Read against this community background, beliefs in protection at sea express seafarers' hopes for safety and their trust in the monk.

In a retold account attributed to Phra Khru Si Satkhun, a boat capsized near Si Racha. Exhausted, the monk thought of I and felt supported in the water. Around six hours later, the fisherman Sanga rescued him. Sanga reportedly saw a monk above the water and steered towards him: the survivor's memory and the rescuer's account form two parts of the story.

Si Satkhun recalled entering the temple aged seven or eight. His foster father credited I's herbal and ritual care with his recovery, commissioned a portrait and sent the child to serve him.

Wartime traditions remember I protecting his home community. Sattahip's military importance left residents fearful of air attack, and they looked to him for reassurance. Local stories recount bombs failing or falling into the sea instead of reaching targets on land. Devotees believed his protection had helped them survive the danger.

Amulets and transmission

Collectors often mention him in the phrase “Chat, Chong, Khong, I.” This familiar grouping was not a formal organization established by the four monks. Objects associated with I include portrait medals, Phra Pidta, Phra Sam, Phra Si, palat khik, takrut and yantra shirts. Each raises separate questions of date, material and design. A master's name alone does not establish an object's provenance.

Collectors also describe a B.E. 2483 school-building medal in oval and round forms. The copper oval bears I’s half-length portrait, an inscription mentioning school construction and the year “83,” and a reverse yantra. This connects the medal tradition with education, without by itself identifying a particular school relocation project.

A palat khik legend recounts I finding a moving talisman in water during his travels. Unable to catch it, he followed an old man's advice and a young woman retrieved one. He reportedly made 108 copies and chose the furthest-jumping one as their leader.

A lineage compilation names Ajahn Banchop and Luang Ta Chamnian Sukrung as assistants in inscription and successors in palat khik practice, and Luang Pho Thong Yu of Wat Bang Sare as a student. Their individual biographies must still establish the dates and scope of instruction; studying with a teacher does not establish transmission of every practice.

Thong Yu Chanthasaro's own biography specifies instruction in samatha-vipassana meditation and palat khik making under I, alongside study with other teachers. His path illustrates how both meditation instruction and talisman practices travelled between coastal temples.

Another line reaches Luang Pho Ki of Wat Hu Chang, Nonthaburi, called 龍婆Kee in Chinese collector writing. His biography recounts two rains retreats after ordination, followed by wandering and meditation. He then met I and learned palat khik making. Ki later taught his younger relative, Luang Pho Ti, reportedly guiding the pupil’s hand while teaching yantra writing.

Objects commemorating I must be distinguished from those he helped produce or bless during his lifetime. Even a B.E. 2489 attribution requires the month and ceremony date to be checked. A photograph, certificate or story of protection cannot, by itself, supply that missing chronology.

Final years and remembrance

The Navy account records his death from a neck abscess on 20 September B.E. 2489 (1946), aged eighty. Calculated from the birth date above, his age was eighty years and 354 days. Local biographies remember him dying in meditation. Details of his final moments differ between accounts, so a precise time should not be presented as settled.

One account of his last night describes him asking the attending monks to help him sit upright before entering meditation. A board reportedly fell from the wall, while glass from a cabinet several metres away shattered. Recovering from their surprise, those present found him seated without breathing. The episode survives as a story of his passing among disciples.

The temple and its devotees continued to commemorate him. A Royal Thai Navy account records the seventy-seventh anniversary ceremony held on 6 October B.E. 2566. This was that year's ceremony date, distinct from his death on 20 September. Long afterwards, naval personnel and local residents continued to honour the coastal elder through these commemorations.

On 20 September B.E. 2565 (2022), Chonburi's Provincial Office of Buddhism joined Wat Sattahip's seventy-sixth death-anniversary scholarship event for monks and novices who passed the national Pali examinations, and for high-achieving students lacking financial support. It is educational support continued by the temple and later custodians in his remembrance, not evidence that I personally founded or awarded these scholarships during his lifetime.