Wat Pan Tao, Chiang Mai

Photo: Umbrellas and bells.

Wat Pan Tao

Wat Pan Tao is not one of Chiang Mai’s most famous wats but this small temple with its very attractive teak viharn is well worth a peek.

Conveniently located right next door to the prestigious Wat Chedi Luang, the temple was originally built as an ancillary temple to the royal temple next door thus having a similar late 14th century date to it, making it one of the oldest sites still standing today in Chiang Mai City.

Photogenic. Photo taken in or around Wat Pan Tao, Chiang Mai, Thailand by Mark Ord.

Photogenic. Photo: Mark Ord

The delightful teak viharn itself was constructed at the end of the 19th century out of recycled wood from the nearby royal palace. A new king coming to the throne generally preferred to build his own, new, palace so predecessors’ ones were frequently dismantled, leaving a lot of spare teak lying around.

The small temple grounds are free of monk chats, massages, touts, coffee shops and souvenir stalls but do have a very attractive, albeit tiny, garden that the monks have obviously put a lot of work into. A raised bamboo walkway, lined with flags and bells, leads you down one side of the grounds affording views over to the teak hall.

Not your typical temple. Photo taken in or around Wat Pan Tao, Chiang Mai, Thailand by Mark Ord.

Not your typical temple. Photo: Mark Ord

There’s a famous peacock carving over the main door and a large seated Buddha image in the viharn but what we found most interesting, and photogenic, were some of the temple accessories, so to speak, scattered around the edge of the complex: the attractive old monks’ quarters, 200-year-old bodhi tree and the array of old bells.

Wat Pan Tao

Corner of Ratchadamnoen and Phrapokklao Rds