Wat Suan Dok

The chedi

A bell-shaped chedi can be seen from afar

The large bell-shaped chedi is built in a Sri Lankan style and can be seen from afar. The relic of the Buddha is said to be inside. Ramps have replaced the stairs on all four sides, and their balusters are decorated with seven-headed nagas emerging from the mouths of makaras.

48meters high, the bell-shaped chedi

The flower garden

A king's flower garden gave the temple its name

King Kue Na of Lanna founded Wat Suan Dok in 1370 for the monk Sumana Thera. It rose on the site of the king's flower garden, which gave the temple its first name. It was built in the centre of Wiang Suan Dok, a walled settlement of the Lawa people older than Chiang Mai itself.

The relic

In the legend, a relic split in two at this temple

According to legend, the monk Maha Sumana Thera discovered a relic of the Buddha after a vision. When the moment came to house it in the new temple, it miraculously duplicated itself. One relic was kept here in a shrine. The other was placed on the back of a white elephant, which climbed Doi Suthep, trumpeted three times and died. Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep was built on that spot.

The two Buddhas

In the sermon hall, two Buddha statues look in opposite directions

The sermon hall was built in 1932 by the monk Phra Krubra Srivichai, who also had an ubosot built and the main chedi restored. Inside, the seated Buddha looks east, while a standing Buddha holding a bundle of straw faces west, towards the chedi. In the ubosot is a bronze Buddha cast in 1504, with fingers all of the same length.

The ashes

Whitewashed tombs hold the ashes of the royal family

In the northwestern quarter of the grounds stands a grouping of whitewashed mausoleums. They house the cremation ashes of members of the royal family of Chiang Mai. At the beginning of the 20th century, Princess Dara Rasmi, a daughter of the Lanna king Inthawichayanon, had the ashes collected from around Chiang Mai and interred here.