Temples in Northern Thailand

Thailand's North was our first trip with our own car. Thus independent from any public transportation and therefore without much interference with other tourists. Equipped with a huge variety of maps in Thai and English as well as information from the web we went mainly on small roads and highways and stopped at every place, which looked interesting. Some were planned, like Chiang Mai, but others were discovered as we went, like Wat Phra Puttha Phat Pha Nam, which we just happened to come across, slammed on the brakes and hiked up the hill. My favourite was really everything outside of Chiang Mai, which turned out to be a bit too touristy, specially the mountain temple of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. We almost couldn't even park our car, but then most of the tourists were luckily Thais. The few Westerners we saw where rather embarrassing examples of our own kind. Despite the many hints in tour guide books and signs posted, they arrived in shorts and 'muscle shirts' (without having the body to wear them). They were handed sarongs, or skirt-like looking clothes, by the temple officials, to cover up their naked legs. Unfortunately they took them off again and were then visiting one of the most sacred temples of Thailand laughing, screaming and almost not even dressed.

Despite my initial fears the Elephant Training Camps proofed to be a worthwhile trip and experience, especially due to the natural setting in the forests and hills around Chiang Mai. It was also much less touristy than I thought and seems to provide a good source of income for the now 'work-less' Elephants. And then there were the places, which only Thai people go to. Cave temples in the surrounding hills of Chiang Mai. A very special experience, walking up the steep stairways through the forest in the hot and humid climate and then into a cool cave, filled with Buddha Statues and smoke from incense sticks. We were so busy seeing everything on the way up and in and around Chiang Mai, that we had to put off our initially planned continuation to Mae Hong Son. We'll have to come back for this!

Our second trip to the North, in December 2004, focused on the eastern provinces of the North with Phrae, Nan, Phayao and Chiang Rai. We also were in Uttaradit, but could not find Wat Tha Thanon, despite looking for it on two separate days. So, we thought it was not meant to be and left again. We went to those provinces during the rice harvest and had some great impressions from the hard working people of Lanna. A lot of the work there still happens manually and not with machines. We also had to master several roads through mountains, some of which had not even been on any maps we brought along. Along the border of Myanmar were several spots were we prayed that our breaks continue to work but had some really great views into Myanmar territory. There were also a lot of police and army check points along the way, checking for drugs and illegal goods.

The Lanna-style architecture of the temples up here is really amazing. We also had several Burmese temples on our plan and we voted for Wat Nantharam in Phayao province as our most favorite temple. It is located so far off the normal track going North and the trip over the mountains consumed so much time, that I really worried that we would miss it. Luckily we made it in time and the eagle eye of our Thai friend managed to see the hidden sign to the temple. All this effort awarded us with one of the most beautiful wooden temples in Northern Thailand with a beautiful Mandalay-style Buddha image.

On this second trip to Lanna we visited 53 temples, burned hundreds of incense sticks, lit many candles and drove over 3000 km. The three of us going took a combined 3500 pictures and I managed to run out of space on my new 4GB flash card. And already on the way back we discussed going back to Chiang Mai on one of our next trips.

In 2005 we did another extensive trip to the North, finally visiting Tak, Mae Hong Son and new temples in Chiang Mai and Lamphun. For the thousands of curves on mountain roads we had to buy a new car which was a very worthwhile investment. It allowed us to see some remote country temples along the border country.

During Songkran of 2007 (2550) we spent almost 3 weeks in Chiang Mai and while celebrating one of the best New Year's ever, we had the chance to extensively visit Chiang Mai's temples in the city and other districts. It also allowed us to take part in three important ceremonies during the New Year celebrations with Phra Phutta Sihing being brought outside the temple and seeing it being carried around the city in colorful processions. We also attended the Cho Fa ceremony at Wat Sri Suphan and attended the ritual bathing of Phra Kaew Don Tao at Wat Phra That Lampang Luang. 2550 started as a very good year for us!

Currently we are running out of space on the 8GB card with a 4GB card for backup but as you will notice the quality of the pictures continues to change. When we started this web site, digital camera's were not even on the market yet, while in 2007 we shot with over 10 megapixels.

Having read Carol Strattons amazing book "Buddhist Sculpture of Northern Thailand" in 2008 we realized how many great and important temples and Buddha statues exist in the province of Phayao, a province which we only passed through on the way North before. We therefore planned a special trip to Phayao to do some indepth day trips to Mae Chai, Chiang Kham, Chun and other districts. We were amazed to see so many beautiful temples and Buddha images and actually ran out of time but still managed to visit over 30 temples.

From Phayao we went further up to Chiang Rai again and visited one of the most impressive temples we had seen in all our years of travel - Wat Tham Pa Asha Thong, the temple of the Golden Horse. The presiding abott Phra Khru Ba Nuachai Kosito is an unconventional but very very powerful teacher of the Dhamma.

Phrae Province

Wat Phra That Cho Hae

Wat Phra That Chom Chaeng

Wat Phra Bat Ming Muang

Wat Chai Mongkon

Wat Hua Khuang