Chiang Mai - Wat Suan Dok

In Suthep Road west of the city stands the famous Wat Suan Dok ("dok" means flower garden). The story of its foundation, closely linked with that of Wat Doi Suthep, is woven around with legend. The big, bell-shaped, snow-white, central chedi, Ceylonese in style, houses one half of a miraculous relic only the size of a pea. The relic was found by a monk called Sumana, concealed in a receptacle hidden away inside a series of silver and coral "Chinese boxes" contained in a bronze casket. It came into the hands of King Kuna of Chiang Mai (1355-85) who had the chedi built to house it. In 1383 the relic miraculously divided itself into two pieces, each growing back to the original size. Wat Doi Suthep was therefore built to house the second piece. The variously shaped, glistening white chedis in the courtyard contain the ashes of members of the royal family.

The bot in Wat Suan Dok is graced by an exceptionally fine, 6-m (20- ft) high Buddha in the Chiang Mai style (cast in about 1550). The wiharn, built as an open hall in 1932, is the largest religious assembly room in northern Thailand. The interior has richly ornamented columns and ceilings, two Buddhas standing back-to-back, and various other painted images of the Enlightened One. Note also the palace-shaped reliquary containing the ashes of Phra Si Wichai, the monk at whose instigation the wiharn was built.