Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai
Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai is a historic temple famed for its massive, partly ruined pagoda, drawing visitors keen on ancient architecture and city temple tours.
Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai
Wat Chedi Luang sits almost exactly in the middle of Chiang Mai's walled old city. Its chedi was finished in the fifteenth century at a height of around eighty metres, making it the tallest building in the Lanna kingdom, and it housed the Emerald Buddha for most of a century before that image began the journey that ended in Bangkok.
An earthquake in the sixteenth century brought down the upper section, and the temple has deliberately been left as a ruin - a vast square brick mass with elephant figures at the base and stairways guarded by nagas, partially restored on one face so the original form can be read. It is more impressive incomplete than most intact chedis.
The compound also holds the city pillar shrine, under an old gum tree, and a modern hall where monks sit for informal monk chats with visitors. It is a few minutes' walk from Tha Phae Gate.
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