Luang Pho Pern Thitakhuno: Wat Bang Phra’s lineage, temple renewal, and public service
Phra Udom Prachanat, better known as Luang Pho Pern Thitakhuno, was a twentieth-century monk from Nakhon Pathom whose reputation travelled far beyond Thailand. His tiger yant and the teaching tradition of Wat Bang Phra drew disciples from many countries. He served as abbot of both Wat Khok Khema and Wat Bang Phra, restoring temple buildings and bringing lay supporters together around hospitals, schools, bridges, roads and care for older people. The visitors who came for tattoos and annual teacher-honouring ceremonies also helped sustain this community work. Chinese collectors use the names 龍婆本 and 龍婆笨 for Pern, and 屈班柏 for Wat Bang Phra.
Family and early teachers
His lay name was Pern Phurahang (เปิ่น ภู่ระหงษ์). The Nakhon Pathom Provincial Administrative Organization records that he was born on Sunday, 12 August B.E. 2466 (1923), in Bang Kaeo Fa, Nakhon Chai Si district. Collector biographies add that his father was named Fak, his mother Yuang, and that Pern was the ninth of ten children. Another account gives his birthday as 9 September 1923, differing from the provincial record; the basis for that alternative remains unclear.
Pern grew up close to Wat Bang Phra and, according to the biographical tradition, spent time at the temple from childhood, encountering Buddhist teaching, Khom-script texts, herbal knowledge, and local ritual practice. His family later moved to Ban Thung Khok in Song Phi Nong district, Suphan Buri. There he became associated with Phra Khru Suwan Sathukit, or Luang Pho Daeng of Wat Thung Khok, who is remembered as a leading student of Luang Pho Nong of Wat Khlong Madan. Thai biographies consistently place meditation, herbs, sacred writing, and protective lore in this early period. Some biographies describe the teacher as sharing his learning without reserve, remembering these years as the foundation of Pern’s later practice and ritual knowledge.
On reaching service age, Pern returned to Nakhon Pathom. Provincial material says that he briefly held a function in the royal civil-works or military-engineering establishment known as ratchayotha. When that position was abolished, he helped his parents farm while continuing to learn sacred scripts and tattooing from Phra Achan Him Inthachoto, abbot of Wat Bang Phra. His return brought him close to the teachers of his home temple again while he was still helping to support his family.
Ordination and its recorded dates
Accounts of his ordination preserve differing dates and calendar details. Detailed biographies widely state that he received higher ordination in Wat Bang Phra’s boundary hall on 23 May B.E. 2491 (1948). They name Chao Athikan Him Inthachoto as preceptor, Phra Achan Thong Yu Pathumrat as the announcing teacher, and Phra Achan Plian Thitthammo as instructing teacher; Pern received the monastic name Thitakhuno. The year 2491 fits the reported total of fifty-four rains at his death and would make him about twenty-four, not twenty. Yet the same accounts frequently describe the date as a Friday, the fourth waxing day of lunar month six in a Pig year. The Gregorian date 23 May 1948 was a Sunday, and the zodiac detail also fails to align. The provincial biography instead says only that he ordained at twenty. Thus 23 May 2491 remains a widely recorded date, but the weekday, lunar annotation and “age twenty” claim do not agree. An original ordination certificate or contemporary register is still needed to resolve them.
Wandering and tiger traditions
After ordination, Phra Pern attended on Achan Him and studied monastic discipline, old scripts, yant designs, and the ritual practice of Wat Bang Phra. Biographies say that Him died after approximately four years, after which Pern sought further teachers and places of practice. He reportedly spent about a year with Luang Pho Ophasi at the Bang Mot hermitage. Later narratives trace wide-ranging dhutanga travel across northern provinces, then south to Suan Mokkh and Wat Chao Fa Sala Loi, before Kanchanaburi and the Thai–Myanmar borderlands. Disciples also tell of encounters with tigers and spirit-tigers, and of protection gained through his practice in the forest. These stories have travelled alongside memories of his journeys, although surviving biographies do not give a continuous calendar of his travels.
A story circulating among Chinese-speaking collectors tells of a tiger Pern encountered while wandering in the northern forests. Instead of attacking, it listened to his chanting and remained beside him afterwards, later returning to accompany his practice. Devotees remember him as a tiger-taming monk, telling this story alongside his tiger yant and seated-on-tiger images.
Temple renewal and early amulets
The provincial biography places Pern near Wat Thung Nang Lok in Lat Ya, Kanchanaburi, in B.E. 2504 (1961). It says he camped near the fields, used herbal knowledge to help sick villagers, and assisted local temple development. After becoming ill, he returned to Wat Bang Phra for treatment. Once recovered, he intended to resume travelling, but residents invited him to rehabilitate Wat Khok Khema and he became its abbot. Some collector biographies give 19 February 2509 as the appointment date, while others place his arrival around 2507. The official short biography confirms the abbacy without an appointment date. This places the episode in the mid-2500s B.E., around 2509, but the precise date still awaits the appointment record.
At Wat Khok Khema, Pern repaired the ordination hall, monks’ dwellings, and other facilities, renewing temple activity and broadening lay support. This was also the origin of objects now classified as his “Wat Khok Khema period,” where the word first is often applied carelessly. Competition catalogues of the Thai Buddha Image Admiration Association list a first sema medal and a first pressed portrait from Wat Khok Khema in B.E. 2508, but list the first Somdet powder amulets—with Gandharva and portrait reverses—in 2509. The provincial biography more generally calls a 2509 medal the first sacred object of his career. The records use “first issue” differently, and the reason has not yet been established. Type, mould, reverse, material, temple and year help distinguish these groups; “first issue, 2509” alone does not identify every object.
Returning to Wat Bang Phra
Luang Pho Thong Yu Pathumrat, abbot of Wat Bang Phra, died in B.E. 2516 (1973). Villagers and temple representatives then invited Pern back to assume responsibility. The provincial source gives 25 August 2518 as the date on which he formally took office as abbot. The accounts therefore preserve both an invitation in 2516 and a formal appointment in 2518; the precise handover between those dates remains to be clarified through temple records. Back at Wat Bang Phra, he repaired the old ordination hall, developed a concrete hall and its surrounding wall, and built a bell tower, residences, riverside pavilion, community hall, and multipurpose buildings. The historic temple on the Nakhon Chai Si River increasingly served as both a religious centre and an organiser of community activity.
Ecclesiastical titles and recognition
His ecclesiastical progression is comparatively well documented. In B.E. 2514, while at Wat Khok Khema, he was appointed a phra bai dika in the clerical retinue of Phra Udom Sarasophon. In 2522 he received the second-class ecclesiastical title Phra Khru Thapanakit Sunthon; in 2532 he was raised to first class under the same title. In 2537 he became a common-class royal prelate with the title Phra Udom Prachanat. Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University awarded him an honorary doctorate in Buddhist Studies, in the social-sciences field, in 2538.
From a bridge to a hospital
Pern wanted people living near the temple to receive medical treatment without a long journey. The hospital’s own history states that Pern proposed a hospital for Bang Kaeo Fa in B.E. 2530 (1987), to be transferred to the state. An initial scheme encountered Ministry of Public Health planning rules concerning the distance from an existing hospital. The temple committee persuaded him first to pursue other urgently needed infrastructure: a bridge across the Tha Chin River in front of the temple, a paved road of about 2.8 kilometres from the Wat Lamut junction to that bridge, and two three-storey reinforced-concrete classroom buildings for Wat Bang Phra School in 2533. Even after those works were finished, Pern continued to press the hospital proposal, prompting renewed negotiation with the Ministry.
On 13 November 2535, the Ministry approved construction as a branch of Huai Phlu Hospital and a public-health training centre. Conditions included building to the standard community-hospital design, providing a complete thirty-bed equipment package, establishing a supporting foundation, and transferring the land, buildings, and equipment to the government without conditions. The administration building’s foundation stone was laid on 28 June 2536. Nakhon Pathom Province proposed an independent ten-bed community hospital on 28 February 2537, and the Ministry approved it on 19 May. Services began on 4 July; Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presided over the formal opening on 30 August. On 1 July 2538 it was recognised as a thirty-bed community hospital.
At opening, the first director, Dr Sunthon Serichetphong (สุนทร เสรีเชษฐพงศ์), was the sole doctor, alongside 14 nurses and 14 temporary employees: 29 staff altogether. The princess returned the 20,170 baht donated at the ceremony to establish a fund for poor patients. Pern continued supporting the hospital through early shortages of budget and staff.
Care for older people
Pern also participated in a royal-initiative project for older people. The Nakhon Pathom provincial authority records that Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn proposed to Phra Udom Prachanat that an elderly welfare home be established in Nakhon Chai Si. Pern, the Thai Red Cross Society, Nakhon Pathom Province, and the provincial Red Cross chapter cooperated on 24 rai, 3 ngan, and 97 square wah of public land in Wat Samrong subdistrict. The foundation stone was laid on 26 December 2539, and the princess opened the home on 29 January 2542 under the bestowed name Chalerm Rajakumari Home for the Elderly (under Luang Pho Pern’s patronage).
Tiger yant and honouring teachers
Pern’s most widely recognised cultural legacy remains Wat Bang Phra’s sak yant tradition. An account of the lineage names core teacher designs such as Kao Yot, Paet Thit, งบน้ำอ้อย, Kro Phet, and Phut Son; the most visually famous animal design is Suea Phen, followed by certain Hanuman forms. For older disciples, receiving a yant was not merely acquiring an image. It was connected to accepting a teacher, observing prohibitions and ethical discipline, cultivating courage, and governing one’s conduct. Annual wai khru and khrop khru observances gather dispersed students to recollect the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, and teachers of the script tradition while renewing the social bonds of the lineage.
Disciples and transmission
One disciple who continued the temple’s sak yant lineage was Luang Pho Sam-ang (หลวงพ่อสำอางค์), Phra Khru Anukun Phisankit, later abbot and leader of wai khru. Chinese names include 龍婆三安 and 龍婆沈硬. A disciple recalled visiting Pern’s hut for chanting after another monk tattooed him; sometimes Pern asked students to wait for an auspicious time before leaving.
A B.E.2551 account names five monks continuing tattoo work: Pradit Katapunyo (Paeo), Anan Aphinanto (Nan), Ting Santachitto, Prasit Thammachoto (Toi), and Aphinya Khanuttamo (Ya). Temple spokesman Prachum Phothisawan said they had tattooed during Pern’s lifetime. This describes that period, not a complete list of his disciples.
Yet “Wat Bang Phra yant” does not mean that Pern personally originated or tattooed every design now used under that label. Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University’s local database records that, after his death, clients and later practitioners introduced additional animal and human figures—including Pho Kae, Dam Due, and toad imagery—which gradually came to be treated as temple designs. The repertoire therefore includes forms taught during Pern’s lifetime, developments by later disciples and contemporary designs by individual practitioners. During wai khru ceremonies, some devotees enter states in which they move like tigers or Hanuman. Stories of surviving tiger encounters and resisting weapons also circulate among disciples. These belong to the lineage’s transmitted beliefs and ritual experiences; weapons must never be used to test them on a person.
The lay disciple Achan Preecha Yaisima (อาจารย์ปรีชา ใหญ่สิมา), a longstanding wai khru helper, recalled Pern teaching moral shame and fear of wrongdoing, gratitude, precepts, meditation and chanting. Pern also urged disciples to return each year. For Preecha, the relationship with his teacher endured through daily practice and repeated visits to honour him.
Tattoo hygiene and safety
Sak yant is also a procedure in which needles breach the skin, so it carries physical risks independently of its religious meaning. The International Agency for Research on Cancer and the United States Food and Drug Administration warn that unsterile tools, reused needles, and contaminated ink may transmit bacterial infection and hepatitis B or C; pigments may also produce allergic reactions, granulomas, or scarring. Anyone considering a tattoo should check that the practitioner uses a new sterile single-use needle, individual ink cups and a clean working area, and provides proper aftercare information. Health contraindications, informed consent and local age requirements also matter; minors should never be pressured. Religious commitment may explain a ritual’s personal value, but it cannot replace hygiene, medical advice, or legal responsibility.
Wat Bang Phra collecting landmarks
Wat Bang Phra-period objects are too numerous for a short list to be called a complete catalogue. Association competition schedules nevertheless document a series of recognised collecting landmarks: the first oval portrait medal with tiger reverse in B.E. 2519; the seated-on-tiger medal of 2520; leaping-tiger medal of 2521; first tiger-face medal of 2523; seated-on-boar medal of 2525; twin-tiger sema medal of 2528; first small Nak Prok Bai Makham of 2530; the Bucha Khru or “armour” medal of 2533; Maha Sitthichok and the first Chao Sua Maha Setthi medals of 2534; the large tiger-head medal of 2535; and the Ekkalak seated-tiger and six-cycle seated-on-platform medals of 2537. These schedules establish names and dates used within an organised collecting system, not a complete temple issue register and not certificates of authenticity. Each physical object still requires examination of mould, edge, alloy, lettering, provenance, and comparison with reference specimens.
Death and continuing work
Pern died at Siriraj Hospital on 30 June B.E. 2545 (2002). Memorial sources commonly give the time as 10:55 a.m. and state an age of seventy-nine with fifty-four rains. Calculated from the birthday given above, his completed age was seventy-eight, before his seventy-ninth birthday. The basis of the age of seventy-nine in the biographies remains to be clarified from original records. His body is enshrined at Wat Bang Phra, where disciples return for wai khru and preserve the lineage’s memories through stories and museum collections. The hospital, schools, bridges and care for older people continue work he helped establish, while sak yant traditions have travelled abroad with his disciples.