Somdet To His Life Teachers and the Phra Somdet Tradition
Somdet Phra Phutthachan (To Brahmaramsi), commonly called Somdet To or Somdet Wat Rakhang, was one of the most influential monks of the early Rattanakosin period. His life extended from the reign of Rama I into the beginning of Rama V’s reign. The chronology most widely used today gives 17 April B.E. 2331 as his date of birth and 22 June B.E. 2415 as the date of his death—1788 to 1872—with an age of eighty-four and sixty-four rains. Some later works give B.E. 2333 as the birth year.
Common biographies place To’s birth at Ban Kai Chon or Ban Tha Luang in the Tha Ruea area of Ayutthaya. Accounts differ over his mother’s name and home and his father’s identity. A royal connection on his father’s side also appears in popular tradition, but his parentage remains unresolved.
Biographies generally place To’s novice ordination at about twelve. He later received full ordination and the name Brahmaramsi, studying scripture, Pali and preaching at important centres and becoming known as Phra Maha To. His full ordination is dated to either B.E. 2350 or 2351. The venue and ordaining teachers also differ between accounts; an early monastic register would be needed to settle those details.
Later lineage compilations name Chao Khun Aranyik as his childhood literacy teacher, Phra Bowon Wiriyathen (Yu) as the preceptor at his novice ordination, and Somdet Phra Buddhaghosacharya (Nak) of Wat Rakhang as a teacher of scripture. They are associated with different stages of his education and monastic training.
An older posthumous biography names Phra Ajarn Kaeo of Bang Lamphu as a childhood guardian who later taught him court etiquette. Whether Kaeo and Chao Khun Aranyik were the same person remains unresolved.
During Rama IV’s reign he accepted senior rank and became abbot of Wat Rakhang Khositaram. The usual sequence records the title Phra Thammakiti in B.E. 2395, promotion to Phra Thep Kawi in 2397, and elevation to Somdet Phra Phutthachan in 2407. He remained closely associated with Wat Rakhang until his death. These titles locate him within the institutional Sangha, but later memory places equal emphasis on simplicity, indifference to status and an unusually direct way of teaching lay audiences.
A traditional story tells that To went wandering when Rama IV summoned him. Officials searched for him, but he changed his appearance through a practice called Narai Plaeng Rup, escaping even familiar eyes. Seeing other travelling monks detained, hungry and exposed to the weather during the search, he finally identified himself and returned to Bangkok.
His religious activity extended beyond Wat Rakhang. Later biographies describe his initiation of or involvement in the reclining Buddha at Wat Satue in Ayutthaya, the great seated Buddha at Wat Chaiyo in Ang Thong and the giant standing Buddha at Wat Intharawihan in Bangkok. The last project remained unfinished at his death; accounts of the Wat Chaiyo work differ in date and in the extent of his involvement.
The Ayutthaya Provincial Office of Buddhism dates Wat Satue’s reclining Buddha to B.E. 2413 (1870) and records that To stayed there to supervise construction. The temple moved from a site slightly farther north to the reclining image, temporarily taking the name Wat Tha Ngam before reverting to Wat Satue.
Wat Chaiyo’s history involves two successive great images. An Ang Thong provincial account says the original initiated by To collapsed during construction of its hall in B.E. 2430. Rama V ordered a smaller, internally iron-reinforced replacement, named Phra Maha Phuttha Phim. The present image is therefore not the original preserved intact.
Wat Intharawihan’s standing Buddha holds an alms bowl. The temple dates its commencement to B.E. 2410 (1867). To died before completion; work paused and was continued by later generations. The roughly 32-metre image carries their efforts as well as his intention. Completion dates differ between accounts and should not be confused with the start.
Two completion dates are recorded for the standing Buddha. A B.E. 2553 university study gives B.E. 2470, sixty years after work began in 2410. A temple account instead gives 2467 and dates the first celebration to 4–6 March 2471. The completion year remains disputed, while the celebration was a separate, later event. In either chronology, later generations completed the project after To’s death.
To was also remembered for his preaching. Later accounts describe direct language and everyday comparisons that made Buddhist teaching accessible, with counsel offered regardless of a listener’s rank. A Rattanakosin chronicle associates him with a sermon after Rama V’s coronation on the ten royal virtues and the duties of a righteous universal ruler.
This sermon followed Rama V’s first coronation in B.E. 2411. The royal chronicle records four evenings of special sermons, with To speaking first, on the thirteenth night of the waning moon, about the ten royal virtues and the duties of a righteous universal ruler. Other senior monks followed on the next three evenings with royal history, the Mangala Sutta and the Ratana Sutta.
A notable disciple was Prince That, later Somdet Phra Phutthachan (That), also known in Chinese as 龍婆必蘭. His biography describes him studying under To as a novice. At his full ordination, To served as the ordination reciter rather than the preceptor. That later succeeded to the abbacy of Wat Rakhang.
The early biography also identifies Phra Thammathawon (Chang) as a close disciple from childhood and later a monastic assistant. Chang helped transmit memories to the biographer.
The biography also recalls Chang’s role at the funeral. As To’s body returned by boat to a crowded Wat Rakhang, Chang distributed one or two tablets to each mourner. He estimated that about thirty thousand were given out then, with distribution continuing afterwards—an approximate recollection, not a register of total production.
Another biographical account records Somdet Phra Buddhaghosacharya (Charoen Isarangkun) as a pupil of To and subsequently a teacher of Luang Pu Nak Sophano. This later Nak is a different monk from To’s own earlier teacher of the same name.
In amulet culture, his name is inseparable from Phra Somdet. Wat Rakhang is the best-known tradition, while Bang Khun Phrom and Wat Ket Chaiyo are commonly studied alongside it. Academic work on their Buddhist-art and social meanings shows that these tablets can function as vehicles of doctrine, devotion and communal memory while also becoming high-value collectables.
“Somdet To tradition” does not establish that every object bearing his name was made or consecrated by him. Early tablets with incomplete documentation, crypt deposits, later temple issues, memorial editions, copied moulds and retrospective market names have circulated together for generations. Authentication still requires a separate examination of mould, dimensions, material, surface, ageing, find context, ownership history and documentation.
Stories about To also recall his sense of humour. In one account, he put down his ceremonial fan to help his disciples push a stranded boat. When someone teased him about a Somdet pushing a boat, he pointed to the fan still aboard. Another tale tells of a disciple who dropped a dipper into the water and later recovered it outside Wat Rakhang by following To’s directions.