Wat Phra That Lampang Luang

Wat Phra That Lampang Luang stands on a low mound about twenty kilometres south of Lampang, inside the brick ramparts of what was originally a fortified settlement. It is widely regarded as the most important wooden temple complex in Thailand and the best place to see Lanna architecture intact rather than reconstructed.

The open-sided Wihan Luang, dating in its present form to the early sixteenth century, is the centrepiece: a vast tiered roof carried on massive teak columns lacquered black and gold, sheltering a gilded ku that holds the principal Buddha image. Around it stand smaller wihans, a gilded chedi, and a scripture library raised on a decorated base. A darkened chamber in one of the buildings projects an inverted image of the chedi through a small hole in the wall - a working camera obscura, and the detail most visitors remember.

A musket ball lodged in the railing is pointed out as a relic of a seventeenth-century fight to expel Burmese occupiers.