Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai
The most revered temple in the old city, and the best surviving example of classic Lanna architecture.
Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai
Wat Phra Singh closes the west end of Ratchadamnoen, the old city's main street, and is the temple Chiang Mai treats as its most important. It was founded in 1345 and takes its name from the Phra Singh Buddha image enshrined here.
The building to look for is the small Wihan Lai Kham behind the main hall - a low, dark, steeply-roofed structure that is one of the finest surviving pieces of Lanna architecture anywhere, with gilded stencilwork on red lacquer inside and murals showing everyday northern Thai life of the nineteenth century. The larger assembly hall in front of it is far newer and much less interesting.
The compound also holds a raised scripture library on a decorated stone base and a chedi from the fourteenth century. During Songkran in April the Phra Singh image is carried through the streets of the city.
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- Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai — The ruined brick chedi at the centre of the old city, once the tallest structure in the Lanna kingdom.
