Wat Kuti

Wat Kuti, also called Wat Kuti Tha Raeng, stands on the east bank of the Phetchaburi River. It was founded in 1575 and received its royal grant of consecrated land (wisungkhamsima) on 4 January 1986. The name comes from the separate monks’ cells (kuti) built here so that monks could live and practise in solitude rather than as a group.

The temple was extensively restored in the Rattanakosin period, as recorded in Sunthorn Phu’s Nirat Mueang Phet. The old ordination hall, built in the late Ayutthaya period, has a carved wooden gable of leaves and flowers inlaid with coloured glass; paired sandstone sema surround it, and its principal Buddha image is in the posture of subduing Mara.

Within the enclosure wall stand chedis, three in front of the hall and four behind, mostly redented. The temple also has a raised two-storey wooden scripture hall, Thai-style monks’ houses with panelled wooden walls and three wooden riverside pavilions.