Showing 1-22 of 22 results
-
Anusawari Sam Kasat Bronze Sculptures
These three Anusawari Sam Kasat bronze sculptures portray men standing in 14th-century royal costume. They represent Phaya Ngam Meuang, Phaya Mengrai and Phaya Khun Ramkhamhaeng, the three northern Thai-Lao kings most associated with Lanna history. The statuary has become a shrine to local residents, who regularly leave offerings of flowers, incense and candles at the bronze feet in return for (hoped for) blessings from the powerful spirits of the three kings.
-
Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre
Chiang Mai's former Provincial Hall, originally built in 1924 and a masterpiece of post-colonial Thai architecture, has been converted into a cultural space with interesting, interactive exhibits, music, historical displays and more, spread across 15 rooms. There are also temporary art exhibitions, monthly workshops and a library.
The Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre was awarded a Royal Society of Siamese Architects award in 1999 for its faithful architectural restoration.
-
Chiang Mai Night Safari
One of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's projects, the slick Night Safari has obviously had a lot of money spent on it. It's caused much controversy throughout its creation - primary of which is its location on 1.3 million sq km of Doi Suthep National Park land, and the consequential (and as yet unassessed) environmental impact it may have.
-
Chiang Mai University
The city's principal public university Chiang Mai University, established in 1964, was the first Thai university to be established outside of Bangkok. Today the 3490-acre university boasts more than 18,000 students and 2000 lecturers divided among 107 departments.
-
Chiang Mai University Art Museum
Chiang Mai University Art Museum has temporary exhibitions set in a slick modern building, showcasing contemporary Thai and international art.
-
Chiang Mai Zoo
At the foot of Doi Suthep, the modern Chiang Mai Zoo is set in a lush location, with waterfalls, forests and lakes on the grounds. Open-sided buses take you around the site, which houses a walk-through aviary with over 5000 birds, an aquarium, a children's zoo and a penguin house. It's also home to large African and Asian mammals, including tigers and giraffes. There are also giant pandas and koala bears.
-
Devi Mandir Chiang Mai
The most colourful of Chiang Mai's two Hindu temples is the brightly painted mandir (traditional shrine room) and the sikhara (tower) of Devi Mandir Chiang Mai.
-
Matsayit Chiang Mai
Of the 12 mosques in Chiang Mai, the oldest and most interesting is Matsayit Chiang Mai, also known as Ban Haw Mosque. Founded by jiin haw more than 100 years ago, it still primarily caters to this unique ethnic group; you'll hear Yunnanese spoken as often as Thai within the compound.
-
Night Bazaar
This extensive market sprawls along several blocks. Roofed concession areas, regular shops and street vendors offer a huge variety of Thai goods at bargain prices. Designer goods - real and fake - are also on offer. The Night Bazaar attracts foreign importers, impressed by the discounts given to bulk purchases.
-
Sbun-Nga Textile Museum
The three-year-old Sbun-Nga Textile Museum displays a stunning collection of northern Thai textiles set in five adjoining Lanna teak buildings. The result of 20 years of collecting by the owner Akarat Nakkabunlung, the museum showcases different ethnic textiles with old photographs, accessories and furniture.
-
Tribal Museum
Overlooking a lake in Suan Ratchamangkhala on the northern outskirts of the city, the octagonal Tribal Museum houses a collection of handicrafts, costumes, jewellery, ornaments, household utensils, agricultural tools, musical instruments and ceremonial paraphernalia.
-
War Phuak Hong
The War Phuak Hong contains the locally revered Chedi Si Pheuak. The chedi is more than 100 years old and features the 'stacked spheres' style seen only here and at Wat Ku Tao, and most likely influenced by Thai Lü chedi in China's Xishuangbanna district, Yunnan.
-
Wat Chedi Luang
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.
-
Wat Chiang Man
A stone slab inscription, engraved in 1581 and erected at Wat Chiang Man bears the earliest known reference to the city's 1296 founding. It is thus thought to be the oldest wat in the city, and founded by Phaya Mengrai. The wat features typical northern Thai temple architecture, with massive teak columns inside the bòt (central sanctuary; sǐm in Northern Thai).
-
Wat Chiang Yeun
A unique local temple is the 16th-century Wat Chiang Yeun outside the northeastern corner of the old city. Besides the large northern-style chedi here, the main attraction is an old Burmese colonial-style gate and pavilion on the eastern side of the school grounds attached to the wat.
-
Wat Jet Yot
Wat Jet Yot was built in the mid-15th century to host the eighth World Buddhist Council in 1477. Based on the design of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India, the proportions for the Chiang Mai version are quite different from the Indian original; it was probably modelled from a small votive tablet depicting the Mahabodhi in distorted perspective. The jèt yâwt (seven spires) represent the seven weeks Buddha was supposed to have spent in Bodhgaya after his enlightenment.
-
Wat Ku Tao
Wat Ku Tao dates from 1613 and has a unique chedi that looks like a pile of diminishing spheres, a Thai Lü design common in Yunnan, China. The chedi is said to contain the ashes of Tharawadi Min, a son of the Burmese king Bayinnaung, ruler of Lanna from 1578 to 1607.
-
Wat Mahawan
At Wat Mahawan no two guardian deity sculptures are alike; the whimsical forms include monkeys and dogs playing with lions, and various mythical creatures.
-
Wat Phan Tao
Wat Phan Tao contains a large, old teak wíhǎan that is one of the unsung treasures of Chiang Mai. Constructed of moulded wooden teak panels fitted together and supported by 28 gargantuan teak pillars, the wíhǎan features naga bargeboards inset with coloured mirror mosaic. On display inside are old temple bells, some ceramics, a few old northern-style gilded wooden Buddhas and antique cabinets stacked with old palm-leaf manuscripts. Also in the compound are some old monastic quarters.
-
Wat Phra Singh
Chiang Mai's most visited Buddhist temple, Wat Phra Singh owes its fame to the fact that it houses the city's most revered Buddha image, Phra Singh (Lion Buddha). Started by King Pa Yo in 1345, the wíhǎan (large hall) that houses the Phra Singh image was completed between 1385 and 1400. Architecturally it's a perfect example of the classic northern Thai or Lanna style followed during this period from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang.
-
Wat Sisuphan
The Wat Sisuphan was founded in 1502, but little remains of the original structures except for some teak pillars and roof beams in the wíhǎan . The murals inside show an interesting mix of Taoist, Zen and Theravada Buddhist elements. Wat Sisuphan is one of the few wats in Chiang Mai where you can see the Poy Luang (also known as Poy Sang Long) Festival, a Shan-style group ordination of young boys as Buddhist novices, in late March.
-
Wat Suan Dok
Phaya Keu Na, the sixth Lanna king, built the Wat Suan Dok temple in a forest grove in 1373 as a place where the visiting Phra Sumana Thera, who was a teaching monk from Sukhothai, could spend in retreat. The large, open wíhǎan was rebuilt in 1932. The bòt contains a 500-year-old bronze Buddha image and vivid jataka (Buddha's past-life stories) murals. Amulets and Buddhist literature printed in English and Thai can be purchased inexpensively in the wíhǎan .
Showing 1-22 of 22 results
