Wat Narainikaram

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Narai Nikaram Temple (also Wat Narainikayaram), known locally as Wat Khong, has stone sculpture images of Narayana (also Naraya), Laksana (Phra Lak), and Sida (Nang Sidha). They relate to "TaKoh La" town (the former name of Takua Pa) and the expansion of Indian culture into this region.

The personages of these stone carvings originate in the Ramayana Epic. The statues show the influence of Hindu culture over Takola and the Malayan Peninsula and indicate the origins of Takua Pa District around 200 AD. The Sida engraved image, carved with "Tab Hlam" stone or slate stone, is 125 cm high and 77 cm in width.
The village museum also exhibits old articles and antiques, and includes stone inscriptions 1,300-1,400 years old; these were discovered on Khao Liang.
Some archaeological "experts" believe that Kaling Kharat tribal people who once lived along the Indian Ocean Coast carved these statues. This is a very far-fetched assumption because these people had no tradition whatsoever in stone carving and no connection to the religious tradition that is necessary to carve statues in the correct way.
The most plausible and widely accepted theory is that the statues were made in India and sailed to Thailand together with Hindu merchants and their goods. Due to the monsoon and the inability in those days to sail against the wind, the merchants had to wait several months in TaKoh La for the wind to change. Here pious merchants built temples and placed in them statues that they had brought from India together with priests who could perform the correct rites with these statues.

Latitude 8.77412708749647, Longitude 98.44181240351566
Narai Nikaram Temple is situated at Moo 3, Tambon Le, 14 kilometers from Amphoe Kapong office.

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