Sakon Nakhon Kapok (Kayu) Trees

A small sacred forest of 200 year old Kapok/Kayu trees (ต้นเชียง) is located in the Phu Phan Mountain area of Sakon Nakhon. The village where the trees are located is called Ban Bua (บ้านบัว) which is in Tambon Kuat Bak (กุดบาก) in Amphur Kat Bak. You get to the forested area by traveling just a little ways past the Ban Bua Khuru Rat Samakkhi School. You’ll see the trees on the right hand side. There is a small parking area there.

The Kapok trees reside in an area called “Don Pu Ta” (ดอนปู่ตา), which is a small forest where the spirits of the village ancestors reside. Many of the trees are home to large nests of Royal bees, which are excellent pollinators for the gardens and farms surrounding the forest. The trees are upwards to 200 years old (or more), with the largest one measuring almost 40 meters in diameter. 

Kapok or Kayu trees (called Don Chiang in Thailand) are noted for their unusual trunks, some of which look the foot of a dinosaur. There is a similar small Kapok tree forest in the province of Loei, where one of the trees called Chiang Yai (ต้นเชียงใหญ่) has been listed as a National Heritage tree. In addition to bees, there are bats, birds, ants, and insects, living in different branch layers like the floors of a hotel.

While there are various commercial uses for this tree, and it is heavily cultivated in Java and Malaysia, in most places in Thailand the trees are protected by the villagers, who do not allow them to be cut down or abused by those wishing to scale the high trunks to get at the honey in the bees nests.