Chiang Mai travel guide

Top 10 sights in Chiang Mai

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   1© ผู้สร้างสรรค์ผลงาน/ส่งข้อมูลเก็บในคลังข้อมูลเสรีวิกิมีเดียคอมมอนส์ - เทวประภาส ม · CC BY 3.0

   Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep

   A temple founded in 1383 on the mountain above Chiang Mai, at the place a white elephant carrying a relic is said to have stopped and died. Three hundred and six steps climb a naga balustrade to a gilded chedi and a terrace over the valley.

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   2© Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0

   Wat Chedi Luang

   A temple of 1441 whose chedi was once perhaps eighty metres high, the tallest building in the kingdom, until an earthquake took the top off in 1545. The Emerald Buddha stood here for eighty-four years before Laos and then Bangkok took it.

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   3© Stefan Fussan · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Wat Phra Sing

   Wat Phra Sing is the royal temple that holds the Lai Kham chapel, the finest expression of Lanna architecture, and the lion Buddha image it enshrines. It is the stage on which the Songkran festival centres.

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   4© This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote. Feel free to use any of my images · CC BY 4.0

   Wat Chiang Man

   The oldest temple in Chiang Mai, founded in 1296 by the king who laid out the city, and holding two small revered Buddha images. Its chedi is buttressed by fifteen stone elephants.

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   Chiang Mai Zoo

   A zoo of eighty hectares on the slope below Doi Suthep, laid out on terraces so that visitors climb as they go. It has kept giant pandas on loan from China and has an aquarium with a long viewing tunnel.

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   6© Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0

   Doi Suthep-Pui National Park

   A national park covering the mountains west of Chiang Mai, taking in the Doi Suthep temple and the royal winter palace at Bhubing. Its slopes hold hill villages, waterfalls and several hundred bird species.

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   7© memorable · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Wat Chet Yot

   A temple of 1455 whose seven spires copy the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha was enlightened. The eighth world Buddhist council met here in 1477 to revise the Pali canon.

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   8© Iceway12 at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Ban Ho Mosque

   A mosque near the night bazaar founded by Chinese Muslim traders who came down the caravan routes from Yunnan, and one of seven in Chiang Mai. The food stalls outside it on Fridays are the best halal eating in the north.

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   Wat Suan Dok

   A temple of 1370 in what had been a royal flower garden, its courtyard filled with whitewashed chedis holding the ashes of the Chiang Mai ruling house. The silhouette of Doi Suthep behind them at dusk is why photographers come.

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    10© Flying Pharmacist · CC BY 3.0

    Wat Lok Moli

    A temple first recorded in 1367 just north of the moat, whose brick chedi of 1527 holds ashes of the Mangrai dynasty. It was where a fourteenth-century king installed ten monks invited from Burma.

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   1© Vano111ru · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Wat Umong Suan Phutthatham

   A forest temple some seven hundred years old on the western edge of the city, built around brick tunnels lined with Buddha images and faded murals. Monks still use it for meditation and the grounds are deliberately unkempt.

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   2© Justraveling.com · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Wat Si Suphan

   Wat Si Suphan is known for its silver ordination hall, made by the silversmiths of the surrounding craft village. The repoussé panels catch the light best on Saturday nights, when the hall is floodlit and the walking street runs past the gate.

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   3© Sry85 · CC BY 3.0

   Three Kings Monument, Chiang Mai

   A bronze group of the three kings who are said to have planned Chiang Mai together in 1296, standing in the square at the centre of the old city. The Sunday walking market passes in front of it.

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   4© KayEss · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Wiang Kum Kam

   The capital King Mangrai built on the Ping before he moved to Chiang Mai, abandoned when the river flooded and buried it. Excavation from the 1980s has uncovered a dozen temple ruins among the modern village.

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   5© Vichitsilp · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Wat Phan Tao

   A Buddhist temple on Phra Pokklao Road in the middle of the old walled city of Chiang Mai. Its assembly hall is built entirely of teak panels on teak pillars, a survival of a construction that has almost vanished elsewhere in the north.

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   6© Stefan Fussan · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Wat Pha Lat

   Wat Pha Lat is a hidden temple beside a waterfall halfway up Doi Suthep. Climbing to it on the Monk's Trail turns the walk itself into a meditation.

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   7© KayEss · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Wat Chedi Liam

   A temple of the old city of Wiang Kum Kam, now within Chiang Mai. Its name means the temple of the angular pagoda, and it was formerly called the temple of the golden pagoda; the stepped Mon-style chedi is the best-preserved structure of that abandoned capital.

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   8© Takeaway · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Sacred Heart Cathedral

   The Catholic cathedral of Chiang Mai, following the Roman rite and the seat of the diocese. It serves congregations across the northern hill country as well as the city itself.

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   9© Flying Pharmacist · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Wat Buppharam

   A Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai founded in 1497 by King Kaeo. When Kawila ended two centuries of Burmese rule and retook the city, he began the ceremonial procession from here, and the temple keeps both a Lanna and a later Burmese-influenced hall.

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    10© Ariya 95 · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Wat Ku Tao

    A temple of about 1613 whose stupa is built as five spheres stacked one on another, for the five Buddhas — a Yunnanese form found nowhere else in the city. The Shan community maintains it.

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