Wat Chedi Luang

Lonely Planet review

This temple complex surrounds a large and venerable Lanna-style chedi (monument housing a Buddha) dating from 1441. It's now in partial ruins, damaged either by a 16th-century earthquake or by the cannon fire of King Taksin in 1775 during the recapture of Chiang Mai from the Burmese. The Emerald Buddha, now in Bangkok, sat in the eastern niche here in 1475.

Today there is a jade replica of the original Buddha sitting in its place, financed by the Thai king and carved in 1995 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the stupa (according to some reckonings), and the 700th anniversary of the city.

Financed by Unesco and the Japanese government, they stopped short of creating a new spire, since no-one knows for sure how the original superstructure looked. New Buddha images have been placed in three of the four directional niches.

New porticoes and naga (mythical serpent) guardians for the stupa lack the finesse of the originals. On the southern side of the monument, six elephant sculptures in the pediment can be seen. Five are cement restorations; only the one on the far right - without ears and trunk - is original brick and stucco.

The làk meuang (guardian deity post) for the city can be seen in a small building to the left of the compound's main entrance.