Luang Pho Pan of Wat Bang Hia and the tiger talisman tradition
Luang Pho Pan is a central figure in the history of Thai tiger talismans. His monastery stood in Khlong Dan, Bang Bo, Samut Prakan: formerly Wat Bang Hia Nok, it is now Wat Mongkhon Khothawat. Meditation and forest journeys, the life of the monastic community and local road projects all form part of his biography. The tiger stories grew within this history of a monastery and its surrounding waterway communities.
Chinese collector writing uses 龍婆班 for the monk and 屈班軒 for his monastery.
Birth and family
Temple and local biographies commonly place Pan's birth in B.E. 2368 (1825), near Khlong Nang Hong in the Bang Hia area. Another estimate gives B.E. 2388–2390 (1845–1847), roughly twenty years later; early records are still needed to resolve the difference. His death is usually recorded as 29 August B.E. 2453 (1910). The years 2368 and 2453 are eighty-five years apart, while the alternative estimates give an interval of sixty-three to sixty-five years. His exact age also depends on the birthday and the method of counting age, not simply subtraction of the years.
Another clue appears in Prince Damrong's inspection diary for R.S. 119, labelled B.E. 2443 in the published edition. He describes Pan as nearly sixty, still strong, composed in manner and greatly respected by the accompanying monks. This contemporary estimate does not fit the widely repeated birth year of B.E. 2368. Yet 'nearly sixty' is itself approximate and cannot establish an exact birthday.
Local biographies describe a family that lived at Ban Khok Setthi and worked with nipa-palm resources. His mother is named Tan, his father is described as having Chinese ancestry, and Pan is said to have been the third of five children. Accounts differ over his father's name: Pluem appears in some, Plang in the version cited by the academic record, while others leave him unnamed. The difference in his father's name remains unresolved.
Ordination and the return to monastic life
As a child, he was sent to Wat Arun Ratchawararam in Bangkok to learn Thai literacy and later became a novice; some accounts place this at about thirteen. One tradition says he disrobed to help his parents with nipa-palm work and firewood before returning to monastic life as an adult. Another describes a continuous progression from novice to full ordination. The teacher's title is often given as Phra Si Sakyamuni, with related but non-identical spellings elsewhere. Wat Arun is common to these accounts, but the precise ordination date, the three officiants and his full monastic name still require early monastic records.
A story about his youth explains his return to monastic life. According to the tradition, Pan went to visit a young woman he loved, but the wooden steps of her house came apart as he climbed them, causing him to fall. He took this as a sign that his worldly attachment would not endure. After returning home and reflecting, he decided to enter monastic life again.
Companions and disciples
Accounts of his subsequent studies in the east generally name Luang Pho Ruean as his companion. They describe the two visiting Luang Pho Taeng at Wat Ang Sila, Chonburi, to study meditation and ritual practice; another local account mentions a teacher at Wat Samatha. The surviving versions do not adequately explain how those episodes fit together. Back at Wat Bang Hia, Pan became abbot and Ruean helped run the monastery. Ruean was his companion in study, forest journeys and the care of the monastic community.
A named disciple is Luang Pho Nok Dhammajoti of Wat Sangkasi, also called Wat Nakharat. A biography names Pan as his preceptor and describes meditation training, forest journeys and instruction in tiger talismans, including assistance with inscriptions. This account connects Nok with Pan's meditation practice, forest journeys and tiger-talisman tradition.
Nok's biography also describes him preaching for Pan and leading chants on their journeys. Later, Khun Samdaeng Decha and his wife Num donated land and invited him to care for a monastery. He consulted Pan before accepting; the biography dates the start of his abbacy at Wat Sangkasi to B.E. 2430.
Forest journeys and daily practice
Life at the monastery was not confined to consecrating objects. Local accounts describe Pan leading the daily alms-round, morning and evening chanting, and observance of the monastic discipline, including Pāṭimokkha recitation. Monks worked through successive sections of scripture and became known for their command of the chants. Alongside forest journeys, these repeated daily practices formed the substance of his monastic life.
Prince Damrong's inspection diary, published by the Fine Arts Department, gives a vivid account of Pan's travelling community. In the entry for 7 January during that inspection, Damrong rode out of Chonburi and encountered about 250 wandering monks camped in rice fields beyond the town, their umbrella shelters hung among the bushes. Their leader was Pan, abbot of Wat Bang Hia. In conversation, Pan said he had travelled in this way for about ten years.
The journeys generally began around the middle of the first lunar month. Monks from Pan's monastery and neighbouring temples headed south to Bang Phra, Si Racha and Na Kluea, with others joining along the way. From the southern end of their route, they turned north through Phanat Nikhom, Phanom Sarakham, Prachinburi, Nakhon Nayok and Saraburi, reaching Phra Phutthabat by the middle of the third lunar month. After paying respects at the Buddha's footprint, they dispersed to continue their journeys.
Pan taught chanting and meditation as they travelled. At each camp, the monks gathered at their leader's umbrella shelter for morning and evening chants, meditated individually at night and went out with walking staffs to collect alms in the morning. Villagers fed them along the route, although several hundred monks could strain a small community's resources. The diary also mentions holy water used in caring for sick monks and occasional help from villagers familiar with remedies, describing how the group lived among the settlements on its route.
Pan also led local public works. Biographies name three road connections: Khlong Dan to Bang Phriang, the monastery to Wat Sawang Arom, and the monastery to Khlong Nang Hong. Monks and residents worked together to improve travel, and the routes were developed further in later years as part of local transport.
Royal accounts and the temple name
Rama V’s visit to the Bang Hia watergate provides an unusually important contemporary point of reference. Later articles quote Rama V's account of his journey through Monthon Prachin describing what people valued in Pan: inscribed takrut, wrist-binding, holy-water rites and small or large tiger-tooth figures of relatively rough workmanship. It also records the circulating report that pork was used during consecration and that the figures could leap toward it. The quoted passage describes people's devotion and the consecration stories circulating at the time.
Local biographies associate the name Khlong Dan, the monastery's name Wat Mongkhon Khothawat and Pan's title Phra Khru Phiphat Nirothakit with Rama V. Some gather these developments around B.E. 2452 (1909), but the accounts alone do not establish that the place-name, temple-name and monastic appointment all changed in one year. Thai spellings of the title also vary. Those later forms need to be distinguished from the wording of an actual appointment document.
Tiger talismans and their carvers
His best-known objects are carved tigers and takrut. The tigers sit or crouch and differ in size, carving and inscriptions. The artisan and consecration history of each carving need to be considered through its own provenance. Study of an object needs to consider species, dimensions, drilled channels, base marks, inscriptions, repairs and documented provenance together. Rough workmanship, apparent age or a particular sign is not a standalone authentication test.
Collector tradition names five artisans associated with the carvings: Fak, Chom, Nin, Mak and Ma. Tigers appear with open or closed mouths, while small examples carved from tooth tips are called suea salika. Another biographical version gives six artisans. These accounts and names have become part of the vocabulary collectors use to distinguish and discuss the carvings.
Stories of the tiger talismans
According to the tradition, tigers blessed by Pan ran around inside a bowl and sprang towards pork placed before them. Another story tells of carvings jumping into the water on the journey to a royal audience; there are also tales of bandits carrying tiger charms. These different strands have been passed down within the Bang Hia tradition alongside the consecration story quoted from the royal account. Another story tells of strong currents and waves during construction of the watergate. Pan reportedly cast a blessed tiger into the water, after which it became calm enough for work to continue. One version places this in B.E. 2445 (1902); the year still needs comparison with engineering records.
One version of the royal-audience story has a boy named Pot carrying a tray of tiger carvings behind Pan. On reaching Rama V's residence, the boy says the tigers have all jumped into the water along the way. Pan reportedly moulds a pig from clay and fixes it to a stick as a lure, drawing the tigers back out. The story continues with the king asking why he makes tiger-shaped talismans. Pan explains that, having encountered tigers on his forest journeys, he wishes their agility, alertness and decisiveness to serve as examples—not to encourage people to become bandits.
Final years and local remembrance
Pan died on 29 August B.E. 2453 (1910). Local accounts give both 10:45 p.m. and 11:45 p.m.; the cause of that discrepancy has not been established. His legacy encompasses the monastery's chanting and shared practice, as well as the continuing participation of local people in commemorations. Biographies also give Sunday, 9 April B.E. 2454 (1911), as the date of the royally sponsored cremation. Later portrait medals and memorial statues have their own production dates.
The temple's devotional statue has a history of its own. Samut Prakan's provincial account says residents commissioned it while Pan was alive, so they could pay respects during his forest journeys. It describes an annual gilding observance near the Bang Bo district office on the fifth to seventh waxing days of the twelfth lunar month. Another story says that, after the casting, Pan often stayed at Phra Pathom rather than return to his monastery. He reportedly nicknamed his own statue 'the black fellow', saying it would take his life if he returned; later biographies connect the remark with a belief that he foresaw his death. This historical temple statue and later small commemorative figures have separate histories.
The history of tiger-tooth talismans is distinct from permission to trade them today. The official CITES Appendices issued in 2024 list the tiger in Appendix I; that historical edition is neither a permit for an individual antique nor a substitute for rules current on the date of a transaction. Animal-tooth objects raise questions about species, lawful origin, possession, transfer and cross-border movement. Descriptions such as inherited or antique do not establish that an object can be sold or posted. Any claimed exception requires confirmation with the relevant authorities.
This Pan must also be distinguished from Luang Pho Pan Sonantho of Wat Bang Nom Kho, associated with another lineage and a different group of powder amulets with animal supports. The subject here belongs to Wat Bang Hia, now Wat Mongkhon Khothawat, in Samut Prakan. The shared name alone can easily lead to a mixture of biographies, teachers and objects; the monastery and province are essential identifiers.