Wat Mongkolratanaram (or Wat Tampa for short) is a Thai Buddhist temple in Tampa.
It was built in 2007. However, a temple has existed at this same location since 1983.
Visitors and Tampa area residents flock to the weekly Sunday market, which is rated high on TripAdvisor and Yelp. This market has existed for 30 years with dozens of vendors selling a variety of items, including flowers, fruit trees, plants, fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc. Vendors also sell authentic offerings, like papaya salad, chicken curries, grilled pork, chicken on a stick, etc, etc.
The venue accommodates hundreds of visitors at a time and is located on a picturesque setting by the Palm River. It is a very popular place, which - pre pandemic - resulted in long lines at some stalls on some Sundays. It was closed for a year due to COVID-19, but has partially reopened for Sunday Market with drive-thru service. The temple's website states, “access to the temple grounds is limited to drive-through Sunday Market.” We visited on a Saturday morning.
There is a boat dock where visitors can feed bits of bread to dozens of fish!
The neighboring compound has two very large birds! I’m not sure what type of birds they are... but definitely very interesting.

Wat Mongkolratanaram
5306 Palm River Rd. Tampa , Florida 33619-3746
Phone: 813-621-1669

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