Big Buddha

The Big Buddha is the largest thing on Phuket and the one most visitors see before they decide to go: a white figure on the ridge between Chalong and Kata, visible from much of the southern half of the island. Its official name is now Wat Kittisangharam. Its Thai name is Phra Phuttha Mingmongkhon Eknakhiri, and almost nobody uses it.

The important thing about visiting in 2026 is not the statue. It is that this site was closed for eighteen months, and a great many guides have not caught up.

The closure, and why it still shapes the visit

At dawn on 23 August 2024 a debris flow came off Nakkerd Hill and buried houses at the foot of it. Thirteen people were killed and nineteen injured: two Thais, nine Burmese and two Russians. Two hundred and nine households across nine villages were affected. The slip began in weathered granite a few metres downslope of a car park belonging to the temple complex, then found an existing drainage line, which is what carried it into the houses below.

The Phuket Forestry Centre ordered the hilltop closed, and investigations followed into construction work on the slope and how it handled water. The site reopened briefly on 1 January 2026 and shut again after three days. The permanent reopening was 3 March 2026, on Makha Bucha day, under the temple’s official name and with the shorter hours it keeps now.

We are setting this out because it is the single fact a page about the Big Buddha in 2026 has to carry, and because the date it happened is not incidental. Late August is the middle of Phuket’s southwest monsoon. Our own rainfall record for the island, thirty years of it, puts every month from May to October between 223mm and 315mm. A hillside attraction on a granite slope in that climate is a different proposition in September than it is in February, and the authorities treat it as one.

What is actually on the summit

The statue is 45 metres tall on a base 25.45 metres across. It is concrete, faced in white marble, and the facing is the part that gives it its texture up close: thousands of small panels, many of them paid for by individual donors whose names are written on them. Construction began in 2004 and it is still not finished. As of 2017 the project was reported at about eighty per cent complete, funded throughout by donation rather than by the state, at a cost then given as around 30 million baht.

Behind the main figure sits a smaller brass Buddha, and around the summit run the viewing terraces that are the real reason most people make the drive. On a clear day the platform looks east over Chalong Bay and west towards Kata and Karon, which makes it the one place on Phuket where a visitor can see both coasts of the island in a single turn.

Choosing when to go

Two variables, and they pull in opposite directions.

The first is the view, which is the point. The dry season from December to March gives the clearest air and the most reliable horizon, and it is also when the road and the terraces are busiest. The second is the light. The site closes at 6pm, so the sunset that older guides recommend is no longer available: the last entry is 5.30pm and the gates come down before the sun does. Late afternoon is still the best light you can get inside the hours, but plan for 4pm rather than 6pm.

In the monsoon months the summit is frequently in cloud, which removes the view entirely, and heavy rain on this particular hillside is now something the site itself takes seriously. If your dates fall between May and October, treat the Big Buddha as a maybe rather than a fixture, and check that it is open on the day.

Getting up the hill

There is no public transport to the summit. The marked road leaves the main road a short distance north of the Chalong roundabout and winds up the hillside; it is paved and signposted, with places to stop along the way. Most visitors arrive by taxi, by hired car or on a rented scooter.

The scooter is the common choice and it is the one that deserves a warning. The climb is steep and continuous, and an underpowered machine with two people on it will struggle, which matters more on the way down than on the way up. If you have not ridden a scooter before, this is not the hill to learn on. Our page on driving in Thailand covers the licence and insurance position, which catches a lot of visitors out.

What it pairs with

Wat Chalong, the largest and most visited temple on Phuket, sits at the bottom of the same hill and the two are almost always done together. From there the road runs on to Phuket Old Town in one direction and down to Rawai and Nai Harn in the other. If the Big Buddha is closed on your day, the old town is the better substitute than another viewpoint, because it is the one part of the island that does not depend on the weather.

More on the island: things to do in Phuket, the weather month by month, and where to stay.