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Photo credit: Krishanah Thiwatsirikul

Three faculty members from Walailak University helped draft and translate the English-language nomination dossier that led to the inscription of Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province onto the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The inscription was formally approved on 25 July 2026 during the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Busan, Republic of Korea. The decision makes Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan Thailand's sixth cultural World Heritage property and ninth World Heritage site overall, and the first World Heritage site in the country's southern region — a milestone that has been a source of pride for the people of Nakhon Si Thammarat and for Thailand as a whole.

The WU team included Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wirut Thinnakorn, Dean of the School of Architecture and Design, who served as author and editor; Dr. Kamontip Klaibanmai, Acting Dean of the School of Liberal Arts, who worked as translator; and Ajarn Thassanee Thasrabiab, Acting Head of the Department of English, School of Liberal Arts, who also served as translator.

Two external specialists — Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wannasarn Noonsuk of California State University, Fresno and Dr. Bhadravarna Bongsasilp of Thailand's Fine Arts Department — are also credited as authors and editors of the document.

The effort to secure World Heritage status for Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan dates back to 2009, when Nakhon Si Thammarat Province established a working committee — initially chaired by Asst. Prof. Chatchai Sukarakan, then President of Nakhon Si Thammarat Rajabhat University — under Order No. 904/2552 to pursue the nomination. Successive working groups carried the initiative forward in the years that followed, producing four editions of the academic reference volume "Phra Borommathat to World Heritage," which supplied research and documentation that ultimately underpinned the successful nomination.