Elder Rasband dedicates Bangkok Thailand Temple

October 22, 2023

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BANGKOK, Thailand — The Southeastern Asian nation of Thailand is known as “the land of smiles,” and its capital city of Bangkok is called “the city of angels.”

Smiles extended worldwide and upward to heaven as Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Bangkok Thailand Temple in two sessions on Sunday, Oct. 22. The temple is not only the first for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bangkok, but also in Thailand and on the peninsula of Southeast Asia.

Members arrive at the Bangkok Thailand Temple prior to the dedication on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023.

Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

The Bangkok temple becomes the 185^th dedicated house of the Lord for the Church, which has 335 total temples dedicated, under construction or in planning and design.

‘Cradled in the arms of prophets and apostles’

In preparing for the temple dedication and the dedicatory prayer he offered, Elder Rasband reviewed Thailand’s history and the Church’s history in the country and throughout Southeast Asia. He took pages of notes — particularly of all the apostolic visits to Thailand over the years.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband walks out of the Bangkok Thailand Temple wearing white.

“What has settled on me is how the country and the temple have been cradled in the arms of prophets and apostles,” Elder Rasband said.

He cited from his research that two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — who both later served as Church presidents — played key roles in the late 1960s: Elder Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated Thailand for the preaching of the gospel on Nov. 2, 1966, in Bangkok’s Lumpini Park, and Elder Ezra Taft Benson presented an English copy of the Book of Mormon to the King of Thailand, His Majesty King Bhumiphol Adulyadej, in a Nov. 30, 1968, interview that was broadcast on television.

In 1974, Elder David B. Haight, also of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, dedicated the Church’s first meetinghouse in the Asok area of Bangkok, not far from the new temple’s location.

Elder Rasband also paid special tribute to the roles of the last three Church presidents in the coming of the Bangkok Thailand Temple — President Hinckley, who in 2000 foretold of a temple; President Thomas S. Monson, who officially announced the temple in 2015; and President Russell M. Nelson, who toured the temple site five years ago and assigned Elder Rasband to do this weekend’s dedication.

Members pose with their recommends outside of the Bangkok Thailand Temple.

“The Church located its temple here by revelation,” Elder Rasband said.

Citing the last 3 Church presidents

In an interview with the Church News the day before the temple dedication, Elder Rasband said he would share three quotes from the three Church presidents with those attending the sessions, wanting to emphasize the involvement of the prophets.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband poses with his wife, Sister Melanie Rasband, outside the Bangkok Thailand Temple.

He quoted President Hinckley from a June 2000 meeting with members in Bangkok: “The Lord has heard our prayers. He has led us under difficulties for a long season. But now Heaven is smiling upon us. You are pioneers here in carrying forward the work of the Lord in this country, and I promise that if you are faithful, the time will come when a temple will be constructed in Thailand.”

He quoted President Monson’s announced of a temple for Bangkok in the Sunday morning session of April 2015 general conference: “This morning I am very pleased to announce three new temples which will be built in the following locations: Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Port au Prince, Haiti; and Bangkok, Thailand. What marvelous blessings are in store for our faithful members in these areas.”

Members wait to enter the Bangkok Thailand Temple for its dedication.

And he quoted President Nelson, who first came to Thailand as a visiting physician before his call in 1984 as an Apostle and who later came as a senior Church leader, the most recent being his inaugural 2018 global ministry. During the April 2018 meeting with members in Bangkok, President Nelson promised: “I bless you with love at home, success in your work and joy in your hearts as you prepare for the temple of the Lord in this sacred country.”

A ‘surreal’ assignment

Sunday’s dedication services drew several thousand Latter-day Saints throughout the day, as attendees were seated not only throughout the 48,525-square-foot, six-story and nine-spired temple for the two sessions, but also in the two large chapels and overflow areas in the neighboring temple annex. The 91,370-square foot annex also includes office areas, meeting rooms, seminary and institute facilities, patron housing, a mission office and a FamilySearch Center.

A portion of one of the structures at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, Thailand.

Besides longtime pioneer members, other local Latter-day Saints, former full-time missionaries who served in Thailand and former Thai residents returned to Bangkok for the occasion. So did emeritus General Authority Seventies — such as Elder Robert C. Gay and Elder David F. Evans —who had had ecclesiastical assignments or personal interests in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Elder Rasband had traveled many times previously to Bangkok and Thailand as a former executive for Huntsman Chemical, including president and chief operating officer. The temple dedication was the latest in a handful of leadership assignments he has fulfilled in Thailand, including a 2008 stake conference with the Bangkok Thailand Stake and its stake leader, President Wisit Khanakham. That connection was revisited at this weekend’s dedication, since President Khanakham and his wife, Sister Sumamaan Srisarakham Khanakham, are the president and matron of the Bangkok temple.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband and his wife, Sister Melanie Rasband, wave to a few members outside the Bangkok Thailand Temple.

It all made for a much-appreciated, humbling and “surreal” assignment, Elder Rasband said. “None of us who are ever assigned to dedicate a temple know why we were chosen — it just happens by divine design. As I walked through the temple, I was just overwhelmed with emotion, having quite a personal love and affection for this people, the country and the leaders I’ve worked with here.”

He was joined at the dedication events by his wife, Sister Melanie Rasband; Elder Benjamin M. Z. Tai, General Authority Seventy and president of the Asia Asia, and his wife, Sister Naomi Toma Tai; Elder Kevin R. Duncan, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Nancy Duncan; and Elder Erich W. Kopischke, a General Authority Seventy and Temple Department assistant executive director, and his wife, Sister Christiane Kopischke.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband joins Church leaders and their wives outside the Bangkok Thailand Temple.

Also in Bangkok for the weekend events were the two General Authority Seventy counselors in the area presidency and their wives — Elder Kelly R. Johnson and Sister Terri Johnson, and Elder Michael John U. Teh and Sister Grace Teh.

Blessings beyond Thailand’s borders

The blessings of the Bangkok Thailand Temple will reach beyond the host nation’s borders. The temple district spans from Cambodia to Pakistan and from Nepal to Indonesia.

Loha Prasat, or “the metal castle,” in Bangkok, Thailand.

Just like Thai Latter-day Saints have traveled first to the Manila Philippines Temple and later to the Hong Kong China Temple to participate in temple ordinances for themselves and their deceased relatives, members from across Southeast Asia will be coming to the new house of the Lord in Bangkok for temple work and worship.

The result is a new era of Christ-centered worship throughout Southeast Asia, with temples under construction in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Bengaluru, India, and others announced for Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The new Bangkok Thailand Temple in the city.

The Church in Thailand

In 1852, Brigham Young called four missionaries to serve in Thailand, which was then known as Siam. Only one eventually made it, but not arriving until 1854 and staying only four months because of the language barrier.

Member families living in Bangkok in the 1950s began to hold informal and infrequent meetings, until the Church authorized regular worship services for a small, English-speaking congregation in 1961, which has been functioning since.

Members talk and hug after attending the first session of the Bangkok Thailand Temple dedication.

Six missionaries were first sent to Thailand in 1968, with a mission in the country created in 1973. The first stake was created in Bangkok in 1995, with a second in the city coming in 2014 and a third two years later.

Church membership in Thailand now exceeds 23,000 in more than 40 congregations, with meetinghouses throughout Bangkok and in most large urban centers in the country, including Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Ubon Rachathani.

Food sits on a streetside table in Bangkok, Thailand.

What members are saying

Chontica “Apple” Sihanat is a second-generation Thai Latter-day Saint who was baptized at age 9 and served a mission in Thailand. With a temple in Bangkok, Shinant says “I feel like there is another home that I can come to at any time. I feel there will be happiness happening in my life more easily because it will be closer to my family.”

Besides being excited to do family history work, she looks forward to the temple’s influence for her 17-year-old son: “My son will be safe and protected and know the way to live his life because of the clear standards of the temple and its proximity to us now.”

Chontica Sihanat poses for photos at the Thailand Bangkok Temple.

Ayutthayapacawadee McGeorge said attending the dedication provided an opportunity for increased personal revelation. “I received more understanding on the storms in our life and how we need to carry our covenants across the river currents of life,” she said.

Pawana Preachakul, 14, added: “The temple is very sacred to me and my family. In the future, I want to be in this temple and to serve here.”

Parinya Suphan, 16, said: “It is a blessing to have a temple here and do temple work for deceased ancestors. It is a blessing for me and for them.”

A group of members gather on the front steps of the Bangkok Thailand Temple.

Sasitorn Vantanachan is a pioneer member who was baptized in 1968. Through an acquaintance, she learned about the missionaries and learned they lived on the same street as a 5-year-old boy that she was teaching. “I was looking for them, not them looking for me,” she recalled.

“The temple back then was something far-fetched — we didn’t even have a chapel then,” she said, explaining that the meetings were usually only a handful of people gathered in the missionaries’ residence. “It was something beyond my thinking — I couldn’t comprehend it.”

Fifty-five years later, a temple has come to Bangkok. “It seems more like a dream – but now you can touch it, you can go into it,” Vantanachan said. “The people in Thailand are blessed — we feel very humble, very fortunate that we have a way here to continue on the covenant path.”

Bangkok Thailand Temple

Location: 1645/6 New Phetchaburi Road, Makkasan, Ratch Bangkok 10400 Thailand.

Announced: April 5, 2015, by President Thomas S. Monson

Groundbreaking: Jan. 26, 2019, with Elder Robert C. Gay of the Presidency of the Seventy presiding and Elder David F. Evans, a General Authority Seventy and then president of the Asia Area, offering the dedicatory prayer on the site and construction process.

Public open house: Friday, Sept. 1, through Saturday, Sept. 6, 2023, excluding Sundays.

Dedication: Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Property size: 1.77 acres.

Building size: 48,525 square feet.

Building height: 242 feet, including the spire.