Sri Maha Mariamman Temple (Wat Khaek Silom)
Bangkok, Thailand
- Deities
- Mariamman (Maha Uma Devi)
- Traditions
- shakta
- Worship status
- active
- Coordinates
- 13.72425, 100.52292
- Darshan hours
- Varies by season and festival calendar; consult the temple management for the current daily schedule before visiting. A midday oil-lamp ritual is held most days, with additional observances on Fridays.
- Best time to visit
- September/October for the temple's Navaratri procession through the Silom area, one of Bangkok's most distinctive Hindu festival events; November for Deepavali.
- How to reach
- At 2 Si Lom Road, Si Lom Subdistrict, Bang Rak District, Bangkok, at the corner of Silom and Pan roads; reachable via BTS Skytrain (Chong Nonsi or Sala Daeng stations), short walk.
- Festivals
- Navaratri (Silom procession) (September/October), Deepavali (October/November)
Location
Open in Google MapsSri Maha Mariamman Temple was founded in 1879 by Vaithi Padayatchi, a leader of the Tamil Hindu community that had begun settling in Bangkok roughly a decade earlier as traders and laborers, part of a wider wave of Tamil migration following the expansion of British colonial administration in India. Built in South Indian Dravidian style, with a brightly sculpted gopura tower rising about 6 meters over its entrance, the temple is dedicated to Mariamman (worshipped here as Maha Uma Devi) and remains the oldest and most prominent Tamil Hindu temple in Thailand.
Popularly known to Bangkok residents as “Wat Khaek” (literally “the guest/foreigner’s temple”), the temple has long drawn worshippers well beyond its founding Tamil community, including large numbers of Thai Buddhist and Chinese devotees who treat Hindu and Buddhist devotional practice as closely related rather than separate. Its most visible public event is an annual procession during Navaratri through the surrounding Silom neighborhood, alongside Deepavali celebrations, both of which remain major fixtures of Bangkok’s religious calendar.
Sources
- historical record: Cross-checked against Wikipedia's Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, Bangkok article: confirms founding in 1879 by Vaithi Padayatchi, a Tamil Hindu immigrant community leader, roughly a decade after Tamil migrants from South India began settling in Bangkok following the expansion of British colonial rule in India; confirms South Indian Dravidian-style architecture including a roughly 6-meter gopura, and its standing as the oldest and most prominent South Indian Hindu temple in Thailand, also popularly known as 'Wat Khaek' and widely visited by Thai Buddhist and Chinese devotees alongside the Tamil Hindu community.