A rather sinister myth surrounds this ‘Small Sticky-Rice Basket Stupa’, a brick-and-stucco chedi dating from the late Ayuthaya period, 5km outside town towards Ubon Ratchathani. According to one legend (which is taught to children as an example of why it’s important to keep your emotions in check), a young, ravenously hungry farmer who had toiled all morning in the hot sun murdered his mother here when she brought his lunch to the fields late and in a small sticky-rice basket.
The farmer, eating his lunch over his mother’s dead body, realised that there was actually more food than he could eat. To atone for his misdeed, he built this chedi.
Or perhaps not. Others say it was built by people who were travelling to Phra That Phanom to enshrine gold and gems, but when they got here they learned they were too late; so they built this chedi instead. Some locals combine the myths and say that the repentant son was unable to build a chedi of his own and so joined forces with the pilgrims and they built it together.
Further complicating matters, many Yasothonians claim the real Small Sticky-Rice Basket Stupa is at Ban Sadao village (7km east of Yasothon on Rte 202) in the back of Wat Thung Sadao.
