Thai temple and Grand Palace rules: what official bodies actually publish

The short answer

There is no single national rule for what visitors wear or do at a Thai temple. XTOUR could read four official texts, and they are of different kinds. Only one is a formal rule: the Bureau of the Royal Household's 2024 regulation for the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew and the royal residences.[1] The palace website gives a shorter dress list of its own.[2] Wat Pho publishes its own visitor tips.[3] The Tourism Authority of Thailand published general etiquette advice for temples in 2018.[4]

They agree on the broad idea and disagree on details that matter at the gate, most visibly on shorts. XTOUR reports each text as its publisher states it and does not turn any of them into a rule for temples that have not published one.

The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew: a formal regulation

The palace website links a regulation of the Bureau of the Royal Household dated December 2024 (B.E. 2567), which replaced a regulation of 10 June 2022.[2] Its stated purpose is to preserve places important to the nation and the King, to uphold royal honour and ancient royal tradition, and to prevent damage. It applies to the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew and royal residences in the provinces such as Bang Pa-In and the Bhubing, Bhuban and Thaksin palaces, whose heads may set rules of their own for approval by the Secretary-General of the Royal Household.[1]

On dress, the regulation asks for neat clothes or the correct traditional dress of the visitor's own nation. It lists what is not allowed: sleeveless shirts, tight shirts, tops that bare the midriff, see-through clothing, short skirts, tight stretch trousers, shorts, fashion-torn trousers, loose "kha kuai" trousers and three-quarter trousers. It adds two rules for Thai dress: a ready-made chong kraben must reach adequately below the knee, and a sabai worn diagonally needs a long-sleeved top underneath.[1]

On conduct, it bars touching, holding or scratching murals, glass mosaic and stucco, and the use of laser pointers or other pointers; it also bars photographs with commercial signage, ceremonies, political symbols or activity, weapons and pets. On photography, ordinary tourists may use ordinary cameras for tourism but not for advertising, commerce or politics, and may not use lighting equipment, cranes, dollies, wireless microphones or drones fitted with cameras. Pre-wedding shoots are not allowed, and graduation photographs only in proper academic dress in designated outer areas. The areas open to permitted film crews exclude the interior of Wat Phra Kaew's ordination hall.[1]

The regulation also says no visits are allowed on days of royal ceremonies or official functions.[1] XTOUR has not read a list of those days. For what the ticket and gate cover, see the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew guide.

The palace website's list is shorter

The practical-information page tells visitors they must dress appropriately because the Grand Palace is a place of reverence for the Thai people, and gives its own list of clothes it does not accept.[2] The two lists overlap but are not the same. The website names vests, bike pants, pants skirts and sleeping suits, which the regulation does not; the regulation names tight shirts, loose "kha kuai" trousers, three-quarter trousers and the chong kraben and sabai rules, which the website does not. The website's "short top" and the regulation's midriff-baring top may be the same garment, but neither text says so.[1][2]

XTOUR's reading is that a visitor who follows only the website's English list could still be wearing something the regulation does not allow, three-quarter trousers for example. The regulation is the formal text; the website's list is the shorter one.

Wat Pho: the temple's own tips

Wat Pho's site gives two passages on dress, and they are not identical. Its visit plan says tourists are appreciated to dress politely, with no shorts, although trousers are permitted. Its tips for visitors, on the same page, say traditional or polite dress is required and that shorts above the knee are prohibited for women.[3] XTOUR cannot tell which line the temple applies at its gate.

The tips also set out conduct. Visitors take off their shoes and leave them on the shelf before entering religious buildings, and women are prohibited from all areas set aside for monks to perform their rites. Photographs may be taken, but no one may step on a Buddha image, and only a permitted officer climbs an image to clean it and place offerings. Women may not have physical contact with monks or novices.[3]

TAT's general advice: advice, from 2018

TAT Newsroom's 2018 article is the only text XTOUR read that addresses temples in general, and it presents its points as etiquette to keep in mind rather than as rules. For men it suggests a shirt with sleeves and long trousers or shorts that cover the knee; for women a skirt longer than the knee and a top with sleeves, not spaghetti straps. It advises removing shoes before entering, stepping over rather than on the raised threshold, pointing the feet away from Buddha images, and walking clockwise around them. It says women aren't allowed to touch a monk or his robes, and may hand something over through a man or set it down for the monk to pick up.[4]

On photography it says most temples allow photographs, and that getting in the way of people who are praying or making a donation is considered rude.[4] The article is dated 29 August 2018.

Where the texts agree and disagree

The shorts row is where a traveller is most likely to be caught out. The palace regulation rules shorts out entirely; TAT's advice treats knee-length shorts as acceptable for men; Wat Pho's two passages point in different directions.[3][4][1] XTOUR does not resolve the difference. Each text applies where its publisher says it applies.

Temples with no published rule XTOUR could read

XTOUR has not read a published visitor rule for Wat Arun, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, Wat Rong Khun or any other temple in Thailand, so it states none.

XTOUR does not extend the palace regulation, Wat Pho's tips or TAT's advice to those places. A temple's own notice at its gate is the rule there.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not know how strictly any of these texts is enforced, whether clothing can be borrowed or bought at any entrance, or which days the Grand Palace is closed for ceremonies. It has not read an official English translation of the 2024 regulation; the wording here is XTOUR's rendering of the Thai text. For Thailand as a whole, see the Thailand travel guide.