Filed December 5, 2025
Wat Pa Jao Veh: A Buddhist Temple You Won’t Find On Any Map. NARRATED.
Wat Pah Jow Way is one of a handful of hidden forest temples scattered across the Isaan provinces. This one sits deep in remote Sisaket, barely ten kilometers from the Cambodian border. You reach it by following a sometimes-dicey trail that clings to the edge of the jungle on one side and a series of small cliffs, caves, and tiny shrines tucked along the pathway on the other.
There’s a sacred spot along the trail where water drips from a bamboo tap driven into the rock…one slow, steady drop at a time, day and night, all year long. The monks collect that water patiently, drop by drop, into open cisterns and pump it up to the main grounds. It supplies everything: drinking water, bathing water… their entire day-to-day life runs on the rhythm of that eternal drip.
We even run into a couple bats that scared the hell out of me – but I had to look….twice.
When the path finally breaks out of the forest, you step into a quiet world of freestanding meditation rooms, this sweeping naga sculpture, the main temple hall, monks’ quarters, shrines, and the living spaces of the Mae Chee.Mae Chee aren’t ordained in the same way as monks, but they follow the same precepts and are deeply respected. They are important anchors of these Buddhist communities.
This whole place hums with a calm that doesn’t feel curated, it feels lived-in, carried forward by generations. The monk you’ll see in the snapshots near the end of the video has been here his entire life. His father served as the head monk until he passed away at the age of 106.
And the final two snapshots they’re of the sacred Thone Takhian tree, the heart around which much of this temple’s spiritual gravity gathers.
The Takhian tree isn’t just a tree here. It’s home to a powerful female spirit woven deep into Thai tradition. People call her Mae Takhian. She’s part guardian, part mystery, part echo of the old forest. Some say she was once a woman whose life ended violently; others believe she’s a kind of nature deity who chose the ancient Hopea trees as her dwelling. Either way, her presence is treated with real reverence.
Shrines dedicated to her often overflow with bright fabrics, dresses, gold trim, and small offerings… gifts meant to honor her and ask for protection, good luck, or a little help navigating life. She’s seen as protective, sometimes fearsome, always respected.A mother-spirit of the deep woods.A reminder that the line between the natural world, old beliefs, and Buddhist practice isn’t a line at all, it’s a blend.