Phuket/Things to do/ culture
The Big Buddha
The 45-metre marble Buddha on Nakkerd Hill, visible from half the island, closed for eighteen months after a landslide and reported reopened in March 2026 under new custodians.
What we checked, 18 September 2026
Checked on 18 September 2026. The foundation's website no longer exists as a website, the Thai government pages that might carry hours return 403 to anything automated, and Thai news reporting rather than any official page is the only account of the site's closure and reopening. That reporting is set out below and attributed, not presented as confirmed. We have not been.
Verified via. OpenStreetMap records the statue as a tourism attraction at 7.8277, 98.3128, linked to Wikidata Q1548655. No primary source for admission or hours was readable on 18 September 2026.
Admission
We could not confirm the position from any primary source, and the ones that should carry it have gone. The foundation's own website, mingmongkolphuket.com, now redirects every page to a Facebook account; the bare domain does not resolve. Karon Municipality's pages for the site, the provincial announcements index and the Royal Forest Department's permissions division all refuse automated requests. Every secondary source says entry is free with donations welcome, and none quotes a ticket price, so the likeliest position is free. We are not printing a zero that no authority has stated. Take small notes for the donation boxes.
The Big Buddha is a 45-metre seated figure faced in white Burmese marble, on a ridge called Nakkerd Hill above Chalong, and it is visible from a large part of southern Phuket. It has been the island’s most-photographed modern landmark for a decade, and it is also the least settled thing in this set.
Its recent history matters more than usual. According to Thai news reporting, including Manager Online and Daily News, the site closed after a landslide on Nakkerd Hill in August 2024 and reopened on 3 March 2026, Makha Bucha day. The same reporting says custody changed: the site is now run as Wat Kittisangkharam (Phra Yai) under Wat Kata rather than by the Phraphutthamingmongkol Sattha 45 Foundation that built it, on land permitted by the Royal Forest Department subject to a list of conditions. We could not read those conditions, and we could not confirm any of this from an official page, so it is reported here as reporting, with the sources named.
Why that affects what you should trust online. Anything written about the Big Buddha before March 2026, including opening hours, donation arrangements and the marble-tile sponsorship scheme, describes an operation that no longer runs the site. Hours in circulation range from 06:00 to 19:30 at one extreme and 09:00 to 18:00 at the other, and the narrower one is the figure attached to the new management. Treat mid-morning to mid-afternoon as safe and everything else as a gamble.
A warning about one website in particular. A site called big-buddha-phuket.com ranks in search results as the official website. Its own footer states that it is an independent affiliate site, not affiliated with or endorsed by any tourism board or government entity, and it carries booking links. It is not the Big Buddha’s website, and neither is anything else we could find.
What is worth going for. The road up from Chalong is a proper climb with the bay opening up behind you, and the terrace at the top looks over Chalong, Rawai and Kata on a clear day. Dress as you would for a temple, shoulders and knees covered, because it is one.
Best for
The road up, the view over Chalong Bay, and a site that is still being rebuilt around
Skip if
You need certainty about opening hours before setting off. Nobody official publishes them any more
Where it actually is
Nakkerd Hill, Karon, Mueang Phuket, Phuket
Kata & Karon, Phuket
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.View larger map
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