This is a temple that is close to the top of a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. The story is that a sacred elephant was chosen to find the spot to build a Chedi (semi-bell shaped structure with point where relics and/or cremated bodies of important religious or royal people) to house relics from the Buddha himself. The relics were placed on the elephant's back and then it apparently walked to the base of the mountain, trumpeted 3 times, then climbed up the mountain before trumpeting 3 more times, collapsing and dying therefore marking the sacred spot for the Chedi and Temple to surround it. It's about 12km climb on the road up to the temple.
We drove our motorbike up which was enjoyable...the rest of the mountains is mostly a national park so kits of trees. You can't get all the way to the temple on the road...you have to walk 211 steps up a pretty steep stairway, protected by Naga (dragon-like creatures) on either side with heads at the bottom of the stairs. The Naga - and seemingly the stairway since we saw more of those around Chiang Rai - are more characteristic of northern Thailand, probably an influence of the Lanna kingdom which included parts of what is now southern China.
On the way up, Scott rang the huge gong for good luck!
The large gold Chedi houses the Buddha relics:
We got to sign a sash that will be blessed by a monk and will be wrapped around the largest Buddha soon:
There were tons of Buddhas in a very small area here at this temple in all positions, shapes/sizes, age, inside/outside, etc. All are very beautiful.
The original "Emerald Buddha" (actually made of jade but first thought Emerald) was found here. It's actually pretty small but very famous here in Thailand and is now in Wat Pho in Bangkok. Replicas are here at Wat Doi Suthep which was cool so we could see it close up as the real one is pretty inaccessible (way high up, protection around and can't take photos) in Bangkok.
There is an overlook facing chiang mai which I'm sure is normally very beautiful but we are currently in the middle of the hot season which is when the burn all the forests to control the dry/dead vegetation on the ground but creates a really bad haze. We couldn't see past the railing š©
View of the stairs on the way back down which shows the length a little better:
No comments:
Post a Comment