Wat Phra Singh

The hall

In Viharn Lai Kham, gold leaf and painted tales surround the image

The Phra Buddha Sihing image is housed in Viharn Lai Kham, a hall built between 1815 and 1821. The wall behind the main Buddha, the central pillars and parts of the timber all carry gold leaf and lacquer sculpture. Inside, pigment-painted murals tell the tales of Sang Thong and Suwannahongse.

The ashes

The temple began as a king's tomb for his father

Phayu, the fifth king of Lan Na, built Wat Phra Singh in 1345. He ordered it after bringing the ashes of his father, Khamfu, from Chiang Saen, to be interred in a stupa here. So the temple starts as a son's act, before any famous image arrived.

The name

A market gave the temple its first name, and an image gave it the next

The temple was first known as Wat Lee Chiang Phra, because the area in front of it was a town marketplace. In 1400 the Lan Na king Saenmueangma received the Phra Phuttha Sihing from Maha Phrom, the ruler of Chiang Rai, who had acquired it from Kamphaeng Phet. Once it was enshrined here, locals have called the temple Wat Phra Singh ever since.

The journeys

The Buddha image has travelled to Ayutthaya and to Bangkok

The image is said to have been made in Sri Lanka. When King Narai conquered Chiang Mai in 1662, he took it to Ayutthaya, and after 1767 the people of Chiang Mai brought it back. In 1795 it was taken to Bangkok as war booty, and it is now in the Bangkok National Museum. Wat Phra Singh holds another image identified with it.

The rebuilding

After the city emptied, the temple was built again

Chiang Mai was part of a Burmese Empire from 1558 until 1775. After the Burmese were driven out, the city was abandoned until 1791, and most temples lay in ruins. Kawila began restoring this one in 1782. In the early 1920s Khruba Siwichai took down the main vihara, which was beyond repair, and built the present Viharn Luang in 1924, with a solid teak wood roof.

56 metersthe length of the Viharn Luang