Overview
The temple dates from the 1370s and held a relic of the Buddha in a central prang that has since collapsed; the ruins are brick stripped of their stucco and their images beheaded, which is what a sack looks like two and a half centuries on. Nobody knows how the head came to be in the tree — the likeliest account is that it was left where it fell and the fig grew around it. Kneeling for the photograph is required: your head must not be above the Buddha’s.
Highlights
The head is signposted and there is a queue; the attendant will tell you to crouch, and the rule is a courtesy that costs nothing. The rest of the site is quieter and better than the queue suggests — the rows of headless Buddhas along the eastern wall say more about 1767 than any panel. A bicycle is the right way to cover the historical park.