Luang Pu Kaeo Kesaro and his monastic life in Rayong
A Rayong master with roots in Roi Et
Luang Pu Kaeo Kesaro was a Rayong master closely associated with Luang Pu Tim. Chinese collectors know him as 龍婆嬌 or 龍普嬌. He studied at Wat Lahan Rai and spent his later years at Wat Nong Phawa. The two temple names familiar to collectors belong to different stages of his monastic life.
Biographies name him Chiang Kham Khammi, from Roi Et. They describe novice ordination at fifteen, a return to lay life, and ordination again at about sixty. Family life and an outlaw past occupy much of the later narrative, but contemporary civil and judicial records have not yet been located to check it.
Outlaw stories and a return to monastic life
According to a story of his lay years, Kaeo once joined an outlaw band. During a horse robbery, the owner shot him from his mount, yet he climbed back on and escaped with bruises. His companions then sought protective tattoos from him. When he saw that these encouraged them to cause further harm, he regretted helping them and stopped tattooing the band.
The biography also describes ten years in hiding in Phanom Sarakham, Chachoengsao, before he moved towards Rayong. His son, Chao Khammi, reportedly grew up under Tim's care and later worked in local medicine.
His son Chao Khammi recalled being carried to Wat Lahan Rai before he was five. His father was about to surrender to the police and entrusted him to Tim. Tim raised him and later taught him traditional medicine. This childhood recollection gives the two masters' relationship a family dimension.
He ordained at Wat Wai Krong as Kesaro. Accounts disagree about the officiants: one names Lat, Kiang and Sawat; another names Rat of Wat Nong Krabok as preceptor and Khiang of Wat Phai Lom as the chanting teacher. These different names and temple affiliations should not be silently merged.
Learning from Luang Pu Tim
At Wat Lahan Rai, Kaeo studied with Tim and addressed him respectfully as “Khun Pho,” meaning father. Close in age, the two are remembered both as friends and as teacher and pupil. Their companionship, together with Kaeo's deep respect for Tim, runs through accounts of their time together.
The biography also describes post-ordination study with the Khmer monk Achan Kiang. In another teaching account, the ageing Tim urged Kaeo to contemplate the four elements beyond their ritual uses: earth, water, fire and wind also disperse. Seeing this impermanence in oneself and all things made elemental practice a path towards liberation.
Accounts place him at Wat Mae Nam Khu and Wat Nong Mapring before more than a decade at Wat Nong Phawa, where he died and was cremated. Collectors continued to associate his name with Wat Lahan Rai, although an abbacy there has not been established. One explanation for his moves is that he wished to avoid fame out of respect for Tim; it remains uncertain whether this accounts for every move.
Students and the transmission of sacred materials
Named students include Thongsuk Latthamedho of Wat Nong Kho. His biography describes learning fire-kasina practice, ritual knowledge and tattooing from Kaeo. It also records meditation training with Lat and study with Tim. These were distinct teaching relationships, rather than a single body of instruction attributable to one master.
An account published in B.E. 2556 describes Kaeo entrusting remaining Jindamani powder, ritual wax and other materials to Nak Nakaseno, abbot of Wat Nong Phawa, as temple property. It records the custody of these materials, but does not describe the full extent of any teaching transmitted between the two monks.
Accounts say Kaeo left Jindamani powder, consecrated mineral powder and oils for Wat Nong Phawa's future amulets. Listed oils include tattooing, sesame, sandalwood, and those called tiger and elephant oil. Devotees connect the mineral powder with his four-element practice. These materials link his lifetime preparations with later temple issues.
A Chinese collector account describes sacred materials formed into sheets, inscribed and ground into Jindamani powder. It also mentions a nephew who ordained and attended Kaeo, receiving some powder for pressed amulets and luk om beads. The nephew is not named in this account.
Existing collector classifications include portrait medals dated B.E. 2518, Phra Pidta dated 2519, powder amulets, and statues and Phra Kring Kao Kaeo dated 2527. Each issue still needs its own maker, ceremony and provenance records. A shared master's name does not make all these objects equally documented.
One account describes naval captain Chamnian Tuchinda asking Tim for a tattoo and being referred to Kaeo. After the oil tattoo, he felt a blow to his back. Seeing Kaeo holding a sword, he sprang away in alarm from his seated position. Thereafter, visits to Tim always included paying respects to Kaeo.
A ritual photograph and remembered stories
The Kao Kaeo consecration became associated with a photograph reportedly taken with flash in a dim room. When the picture was developed, devotees saw what they believed was fire emerging from Kaeo's nostrils. They linked it to his practice of the four elements, and the image became part of the ceremony's remembered wonders.
Another story, preserved among Chinese-speaking collectors, takes place behind the temple. Kaeo had swept fallen leaves into a pile and set them alight. Tim passed by and warned him about the fire. As the flames grew, Kaeo calmly took a handful of sand, chanted over it and scattered it into the blaze; the fire is said to have gradually subsided.
There is also a story of a handkerchief becoming a running rabbit. The surviving description is brief and gives neither a date nor a setting. Accounts of protection and control over fire belong to devotional storytelling; they must not be reenacted with weapons or flames.
An account dates Phra Prasit Dibunchai's request for Pidta medals to fund an unfinished ordination hall to December B.E. 2518. Kaeo reportedly blessed them immersed in sesame oil for nine nights. The oil bubbled like boiling water on the first night; afterwards, refilling the original twenty-four bottles reportedly left six extra bottles, a wonder remembered with this issue.
Temple support and later commemoration
The B.E. 2527 Kao Kaeo issue is described as a project organised by Chinphon Suksathit to fund an extension to the Luang Pu Tim Foundation's office. The account mentions 56 days of consecration, a form based on the small Chinese-style Phra Kring, and nine materials with “kaeo” in their names. The issue thus carries a story of construction as well as ritual.
A separate Kao Kaeo Jindamani project in B.E. 2556 (2013) addressed Wat Nong Phawa's leaking, cracked ordination hall and unfinished bell tower. The announcement named abbot Wisitthinon Dhammathipo and scheduled an inaugural casting for 9 June. This was a later restoration plan, distinct from the 2527 foundation project.
In B.E. 2557, Wat Nong Phawa announced a commemorative amulet project for religious-building repairs, with a consecration scheduled for 9 October. This was an activity after Kaeo's death. The announcement records a plan and date, but does not establish whether the ceremony or construction was completed.
Later years and conflicting death dates
Late-life accounts describe Kaeo remaining composed despite blindness and illness. His youngest son, living beside the temple, attended him closely.
The disciple Anuchit Tangkhwamphian is also remembered as caring for him until his death. Kaeo reportedly made Thep Ranchuan takrut in gratitude, attributing the teaching to Tim. Recipients' character was to be considered before passing them on, lest the transmitted knowledge be misused.
His first small portrait casts in B.E. 2527 reportedly raised funeral funds to spare his poor family the expense. The inscribed 101 recalled his birthplace, Roi Et, rather than his actual age.
Two death chronologies circulate: B.E. 2527 (1984), aged 103, and B.E. 2528 (1985), aged 104. Both suggest a birth around B.E. 2424 (1881), but a precise birthday and contemporary monastic records have not settled the matter. The calculated year remains an estimate, not an established birth date.
Kaeo's biography moves from an eventful lay life to renewed ordination, remorse and practice, sustained by relationships with teachers and friends. Wat Lahan Rai recalls his companionship with Tim; Wat Nong Phawa preserves the memory of his later years. Takrut, powder amulets, Phra Kring and stories of wonders continue to draw successive generations of collectors towards this Rayong master.