Visitors to almost any northern Thai temple won’t help but notice the numerous wooden poles propping up branches of the temple’s bo tree. What are they? Why are they there? Well, please read on. The bo, or bodhi or pho tree (ficus religiosa) is the Buddhist holy tree par excellence, since it’s the species under … read the full post

Wat Sri Suphan is a worthy addition to our current Chiang Mai temple coverage — it’s a good one and its location adjacent to the Wualai walking street market makes it very convenient to combine the two. With Wualai being Chiang Mai’s traditional silver-making district, the temple’s claim to fame is unsurprisingly its silverwork. Having … read the full post

Wat Lok Molee is an attractive and often overlooked little temple that’s recently received a facelift, and while not being one of Chiang Mai‘s most well known temples is well worth including on any temple tour of the downtown area. If we grade wats by the number of photos we take in them, then Wat … read the full post

Doi means mountain in the northern Thai dialect (see our earlier geographical names post), so Doi Suthep of course means Suthep Mountain. Doi Suthep’s most famous feature is its temple, Wat Doi Suthep, and is part of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park. Finally, Suthep is the name of the western district of Chiang Mai city abutting … read the full post

Wat Chedi Luang rivals Wat Phra Singh for the title of Chiang Mai’s most important and prestigious city temple. Though it comes a definite second for local visitors, the two temples are probably neck and neck in terms of foreigners, though for sheer size Wat Chedi Luang has no competition. The partially ruined chedi is … read the full post

Maybe I’m a cynical old whatever but… “monk chat club” sounds a little like monk feeding time in Luang Prabang. Not that it’s the tourists’ fault: the monks seem more than happy to go along with it. Luang Prabang novices have never been so well fed and Wat Chedi Luang donation boxes are brimming. But … read the full post

Wat Pan Tao is not one of Chiang Mai’s most famous wats but this small temple with its attractive teak viharn is well worth a peek, and since it’s conveniently located right next door to the prestigious Wat Chedi Luang it wouldn’t be going far out of your way to drop by. Wat Pan Tao … read the full post

It’s taken us a while to get around to writing a post on what is really Chiang Mai’s most important temple, Wat Phra Singh, and while walking around this afternoon we had the distinct feeling it was possibly actually our first ever visit!? Our office is directly opposite the main entrance — but then we … read the full post

The correct name for this historic, attractive and unusual Chiang Mai temple is Wat Potharam Mahavihara, though locals generally use the name Wat Jet (or Chet) Yot, meaning the Temple of Seven Spires for its famous centre piece, a seven-spired chedi, or stupa. According to the Thai Fine Arts Department, the wat was originally constructed … read the full post

The setting for this post is the tiny and rather hidden away Wat Pansao, a temple that we reckon gets almost zero foreign visitors but is actually well worth a visit if you’re wandering or cycling around town. The wat is tucked off the western moat road just below Chiang Mai Ram hospital and Central … read the full post