The life and teaching network of Luang Pho Kuay of Wat Khositaram
Luang Pho Kuay Chutindharo, born Kuay Panson, was one of the most influential monks of Sankhaburi district in Chai Nat. His work at Wat Ban Khae, later known as Wat Khositaram, encompassed preaching, study and care for villagers, alongside the objects and legends remembered by his followers. Later biographies record his birth on 2 November B.E. 2448 (1905) at Ban Khae, village number 9, Bang Khut subdistrict. His father, Tui Panson, came from Wiset Chai Chan in Ang Thong; his mother, Tuan Dechma, was from Ban Khae. Their five children were Tu, Khat, Chuen, Nak and Kuay, the youngest. Disciple biographies record his death at 7:55 a.m. on 12 April B.E. 2522 (1979), traditionally recorded as seventy-four years old with fifty-four rains. The provincial Buddhism office records the same death date and traditional age and rains. Different times of death appear in the accounts.
Childhood and the decision to ordain
Kuay’s first education came from the old temple system rather than a modern school. Ban Khae was then a rural community with limited transport and schooling, so his parents entrusted him to Luang Pu Khuat at Wat Ban Khae. Accounts say that by the age of six or seven he had learned basic Thai literacy, arithmetic, liturgical texts, chanting and Khmer script. After Khuat died, he continued Khmer studies with Achan Dam of Wat Hua Den. He later attended schools associated with Wat Phrao and Wat Pho Ngam, passed the first primary level and studied the second, but illness prevented him from sitting the examination. He returned to farming with his family. Temple study introduced him to Khmer-script manuals, chants and monastic writing. Reading and copying remained part of his later work with ritual manuscripts, yantra diagrams and preaching texts.
Disciple biography preserves a story about a youthful sweetheart. Kuay is said to have visited her on a moonlit night and found her asleep, her hair dishevelled and her mouth open, with saliva trickling out, and suddenly understood that the beauty constructed by desire was impermanent. He then resolved to ordain for life. Disciples retell this episode when describing his decision to become a monk. They also remember his request that his parents hold a simple ordination at the temple, without an expensive procession that would exceed the family’s means.
He received full ordination at 3:17 p.m. on 5 July B.E. 2467 at Wat Bot in Pho Ngam, Sankhaburi. Phra Chainat Muni served as preceptor, Luang Pho Pa of Wat Bot as kammavacacariya, and Phra Achan Ring as anusavanacariya. He received the monastic name Chutindharo. Some biographies explain the name through the practice of cutting off defilements. Kuay returned to Wat Ban Khae, then under Abbot Luang Pu Ma, and trained in Mahachat preaching, especially the Kumara and Dana chapters. His emotionally charged lae passages about widows and widowers were remembered for moving listeners to tears. Accounts also mention palm-leaf preaching texts bearing a lion stamp and attributed to his hand.
The biographies preserve a discrepancy between the dates and the stated age at ordination. Taken together, 2 November 1905 and 5 July 1924 give an age at ordination of about eighteen years and eight months, not the twenty stated in some biographies. Traditional age reckoning does not by itself settle this discrepancy. The traditional age of seventy-four at death would, using the stated birthday, correspond to seventy-three completed years.
Studies and teachers
He also pursued rural medicine. Accounts name a lay healer, Mo Khian, who taught methods used locally against epidemics called rok ha and against smallpox. On 19 June B.E. 2472 Kuay moved to Wat Wang Khon in Pho Chon Kai, Bang Rachan, Sing Buri, where he spent two rains studying the elementary Nak Tham curriculum and prepared for the intermediate examination. Illness prevented him from sitting it, after which he devoted more attention to meditation, medicine, Khmer writing, yantras and protective objects. During a B.E. 2477 residence at Wat Nong Khaem in Dong Khon, he studied further with Mo Yai of Ban Bang Nam Phra. These studies belonged to a period when villages faced epidemics with limited access to physicians and medicines.
According to disciple biographies, Kuay studied meditation and the making of finger rings with Luang Pho Si Wiriyasophit of Wat Phra Prang. The rings bear the Khmer inscription iti. Fellow students and other disciples recalled his studies with Luang Pho Doem of Wat Nong Pho, and accounts mention an inscribed photograph of Doem found in Kuay’s quarters. Names such as Luang Pho Baen of Wat Doem Bang, Luang Pho Im of Wat Hua Khao, Luang Pho Phuang of Wat Nong Kradon and Luang Pho Khen of Wat Dong Setthi, as well as lay teachers Khru Fung, Khru Champi, Khru Lun, Khru Pheng and Achan Laem, appear through manuscript attributions, similar cloth designs, medical notes or oral testimony. The accounts of personal study sit alongside knowledge preserved through manuscripts and the designs of ritual objects.
Lung Lon recalled walking with Kuay for a day to Wat Nong Pho, staying three nights and massaging Doem. In the story, Kuay asked to learn alchemy, but Doem declined, considering it outside the path of Dhamma. The visit remained part of his disciple’s recollections of the teacher.
The manuscript in the tree hollow
The story of a folding manuscript found in a tree hollow at Wat Nong Khaem is central to disciple memory. A monk named Chaem reportedly discovered the manuscript but feared removing it. Kuay lit incense and vowed to use the knowledge for the temple and for helping people, after which he carried it away for study. The volume known as Khru Raeng was said to contain hundreds of archaic formulas and yantras, with originals or copies later held by the temple and disciples. The tale also speaks of incense burning through and a protecting presence associated with the manuscript. The discovery in the tree hollow remains a story passed down among his disciples.
The tale says incense initially failed to burn through. After Kuay pledged to benefit people and the temple, all three sticks burned completely. He then poured water, dedicating merit to the book’s former owner.
Village life and temple building
Disciple biographies place Kuay at Wat Nong Ta Kaeo in Suphan Buri and Wat Nong Khaem in Chai Nat, then at Wat Bang Ta Ngai in Banphot Phisai, Nakhon Sawan, while visiting Doem at Wat Nong Pho to study. Before and during the Second World War, Kuay resumed a prominent role at Wat Ban Khae. Biographies say that from B.E. 2484 onward he followed the one-meal-a-day observance. Roads were difficult, medicines and doctors scarce, and banditry a serious local concern. He treated villagers, distributed tablets and takrut, and tattooed those who sought protection. One tradition says a register reached 44,000 tattoo recipients before names were no longer recorded; other stories describe firearms failing against recipients. When requests became overwhelming, he stopped tattooing and concentrated on other protective objects, remarking that continued offerings could otherwise have roofed his hut with banknotes. Local biography also recalls villagers leaving valuables with him, bringing their families to sleep at the temple, and sheltering cattle and buffalo in its grounds when bandits threatened the area.
Kuay was appointed abbot of Wat Ban Khae on 1 September B.E. 2491, authorized as a kammavacacariya on 1 March B.E. 2497, and granted the lower ecclesiastical rank of phra khru chan prathuan on 5 December B.E. 2511. Older accounts call the temple Wat Khwit, villagers called it Wat Ban Khae, and its later official name became Wat Khositaram. One later tradition links the new name to Wat Rakhang Khositaram and the amulets of Somdet To. As abbot he continued to inhabit a modest wooden residence and left much construction and repair administration to the lay temple committee.
That modest life did not exclude involvement in building. Chao Phaeoket recalled accompanying Kuay by oxcart to collect bricks from abandoned temples for the ordination-hall foundations.
Disciples consistently remembered a man of few words who did not rank visitors by wealth or respectability. Accounts emphasize his concern for the poor, the sick, people with mental distress and others rejected by society. He kept dogs, planted trees and declined ritual invitations unless necessary. Money left beside him might remain until a temple committee member collected it. At annual festivals he carried an alms bowl filled with popped rice, uncooked rice, salt, coins and small images for distribution, allowing elderly visitors to choose first so that they would not be crushed in the crowd. He liked making objects but disliked seeing one person take a large quantity for resale. Disciples remembered villagers arriving for treatment, practical help and protective objects. The things he distributed accompanied those families through poverty, illness and insecurity.
Members of the Yimchu family also recalled helping fill the ground around the ordination hall. Kuay gave them amulets on each visit, in varying numbers.
Disciples and transmission
In an interview, temple representatives recalled that Thanom, born Thanom Onsa-at in Doem Bang, was ordained on 2 April B.E. 2503. He then joined Kuay at Wat Ban Khae, studied Buddhist texts, preaching and ritual practice, and became deputy abbot. When Wat Doem Bang needed an abbot in B.E. 2513, villagers invited Thanom home; Kuay accompanied him. The temple also credits Kuay with designing and reviewing its preaching hall.
Disciple recollections also name Achan Tua of Wat Sap Lam Yai, Achan Tia of Wat Sam Ek and Luang Pho Sawaeng of Wat Nong I Duk. Sawaeng is remembered for making arm rings and takrut from Kuay’s manuals, a thread in the transmission of his talismanic traditions.
Stories of occult powers
Devotees tell of stranger powers: Kuay transforming into a tiger, turning people into crocodiles, banana stems into snakes and leaves into wasps, and moving amulets through the air. Such tales continue to accompany memories of him. Protective traditions should never be a reason to test knives or firearms.
Amulet production and work with other temples
The manufacture of his powder and clay tablets involved several reported stages. Disciples say he prepared pathamang, maharat, itthache and na 108 powders with chalk, medicinal plants and selected minerals. Accounts also describe powders received from earlier teachers and, in some types, hair from Kuay or his teachers. Some Somdet forms were pressed one at a time by hand, whereas some clay moulds were copied from old tablets. In the production account, weak impressions from clay moulds were kept with clearer tablets; the passage about discarding items in the pond refers instead to Somdet moulds. A nine-leaf bodhi mould was reportedly entrusted to Achan Tua, after which a newly cut reverse appeared in later production. Original moulds, lifetime copies, later disciple recuts and market imitations therefore have different histories.
Other talismans show an equally complex division of labour. Many takrut are described as personally inscribed, rolled, strung and sometimes woven by Kuay. Early ritual knives involved craftsmen from Ban Khu and Lung Khli Yimchan, whereas later blades came from Phayuha craftsmen and were fitted with handles by the monk. Early palat khik could be carved and inscribed by him; later lead-and-silver examples were sometimes commissioned or cast, with both inscribed and uninscribed variants. Arm bands and cloth yantras likewise did not follow one production method. Designer, material supplier, craftsman, inscriber, assembler, sponsor and consecrator were not necessarily the same person.
His objects also include portrait medals, small figures and altar statues. Collecting literature refers to first and second portrait medals, a first pressed figure around B.E. 2510, and a second altar statue in B.E. 2521, but dates, mould names, metals, quantities and responsible parties vary between catalogues. The B.E. 2515 yok cho fa medal of Wat Doem Bang offers a clearer case: Phra Achan Thanom and Wat Doem Bang sponsored it, while Kuay supplied the reverse yantra design and consecrated the issue at Wat Doem Bang and Wat Khositaram. It was a Wat Doem Bang project authorized and consecrated by Kuay.
The temple’s retrospective account places the B.E. 2515 medal’s first consecration at the laying of Wat Doem Bang’s preaching-hall foundation stone. Further consecration at Wat Khositaram reportedly continued for about two years before distribution at the hall’s roof-finial ceremony.
Later life and commemoration
In B.E. 2521 Kuay was admitted to Phyathai Hospital in a weakened state. Disciple biography says physicians identified longstanding nutritional deficiency and administered protein for about a month. Back at the temple he continued to eat once daily. During March B.E. 2522 his strength declined, yet accounts describe him continuing to inscribe takrut and hold the ritual cord during consecration. A disciple version says he circled dates on a calendar, anticipated death on 11 April but died on 12 April at 7:55 a.m.; a bell reportedly fell and sounded at his passing. The provincial Buddhism office records 12 April and the traditional age and rains. A 2026 provincial public-relations report instead gives approximately 5:55 a.m. Both times remain recorded in the accounts.
Wat Khositaram continues to commemorate him on 12 April. A provincial report records B.E. 2569 grants totalling 12,511,000 baht, with recipients including five state hospitals, fourteen subdistrict health hospitals and fifty-eight schools. This is posthumous welfare work, not evidence that Kuay founded those institutions.
Preaching manuscripts, ritual books, amulets and remembered encounters all carry Kuay’s story forward. Devotional titles such as Wajasit and “deity of Mueang San” express followers’ trust in his words and protection. Study, practical care and occult traditions coexist in that memory.