Wat Thepwanaram - วัดเทพวนาราม (วัดม่าหนิก)

Wat Thepwanaram, is also known as Wat Manik (วัดม่าหนิก) due to the temple's location in Bahn Manik, Sri Sunthorn, Thalang. It is quite hard to find, so if heading north from Phuket just turn left at the Heroine's monument, into the road to Surin Beach and after a kilometre or two,  look for the temple archway on the left-hand side (click the location link at the bottom of post to see a map). When I was there, late afternoon on a Thursday, there was a street market right at the entrance.

  

I was expecting a small temple and was surprised to see several buildings all so well looked after. I have read that the temple is sponsored by local hotels and is well known by the locals for it's teachings which makes it popular for them to bring their children to enrol as novice monks when the temple holds a Summer Camp or mass ordination ceremony for novice monks so that they can go to the temple together with their friends. This is cheaper and obviously much more fun!

The temple is on the border of hills and rubber plantations surrounded by lakes which would have previously been tin mining areas and is next to Anthem Wakeboard park, so for members of the family who are not into temple visits, there is always an alternative!