Wat Phra Singh- The temple, which is also known as “The Monastery of the Lion Buddha” or “The temple

Wat Phra Singh- The temple, which is also known as “The Monastery of the Lion Buddha” or “The temple of the Lion Buddha” is an active temple, with hundreds of monks and novices living there. The Wat Phra Singh houses a number of highly revered and very old Buddha images.

The Wat Phra Singh dates back to the 14th century when Chiang Mai was the capital of the Lanna Kingdom, and is one of the finest examples of classic Lanna style temple architecture in Northern Thailand.

The oldest structure of the wat is the main chedi, that was built in 1345 by King Pha Yu to enshrine the ashes of his father. The chedi is circular in shape with a square base. Each of the sides of the chedi is decorated with elephant figures emerging from the chedi. Since its construction in the 14th century it has been enlarged considerably.

The largest building in the wat is the Viharn Luang. The original viharn was built towards the end of the 14th century, but was replaced by the current building in 1925. This impressive viharn houses a very highly revered Buddha image named Phra Chao Thong Tip. This gold and copper image of a seated Buddha displaying the subduing Mara mudra was cast in 1477.

https://www.renown-travel.com/temples/wat-phra-singh.html @ Wat Phra Singh (hoofdbetekenis)

Wat Sri Suphan is also known as the Silver Temple because of its impressive hand crafted silver deco

Wat Sri Suphan is also known as the Silver Temple because of its impressive hand crafted silver decoration. The temple is completely covered in silver, from the walls to the roof and display some detailed silver carvings of Buddhism legends. Even the statues of Buddha are covered in silver. Wat Sri Suphan was originally built around 1500 to serve as the main temple for a silversmith village. While over the years parts of the temple were repaired with silver from the local village the process of completely covering the temple in silver only began in 2008. The inside of the temple is even more interesting with silver decoration, mirrors and bright colours mixed together. However due to old Buddhist rules women are not allowed to enter the inside of the temple and must remain outside.

http://www.chiangmai.bangkok.com/attract…/wat-sri-suphan.htm @ Silver Temple Chiang Mai Thailand

Check out the engraved art in Wat Sri Suphan. What do you think it means? Lots of Hell/water/UFO/Zodiac/calendar motifs.... @ Silver Temple Chiang Mai Thailand

The Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is one of the most important temples of Northern Thailand. During the B

The Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is one of the most important temples of Northern Thailand. During the Buddhist holidays of Visakha Bucha day and Makha Bucha Day Thai people come to this temple in great numbers. Doi Suthep Mountain

This temple is located on top of the Doi Suthep mountain, some 15 kilometers out of Chiang Mai. From the car park there are two ways to reach the temple.

The first is a 309 step pretty vertical climb up the mountain. The stairs are flanked by huge Naga creatures. The Naga is an underwater creature from Buddhist mythology in the form of a large snake.

The legend of the white elephant

There are several versions of the legend of how the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep was founded.

According to a popular version of the legend a monk from Sukhothai was in possession of a relic believed to be a shoulder bone of The Buddha. This relic was believed to have magical powers. The monk took the relic to King Kuena, ruler of the Lanna Kingdom.

When he arrived, the relic had split up in two pieces, one being of the original size, the other one smaller. The smaller part was enshrined in the Wat Suan Dok, a temple just outside the old city of Chiang Mai. The original relic was to be placed in a newly build temple.

To choose the location for the new temple, the relic was placed on the back of a sacred white elephant that was then set free to go where ever it wanted. The elephant climbed up Doi Suthep mountain and just before it arrived at the top, it trumpeted three times and died. This was taken as a sign that this was the place to build a temple to house the relic.

Then in 1368 the first chedi of the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep was build to keep the holy relic. Since then, the temple complex has grown considerably. At the top of the stairs is a statue of the white elephant that determined the location of the temple. @ Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, Thailand