Explore Chiang Mai

Wat Phra Singh is a Buddhist temple in the western part of Chiang Mai's old city, founded in 1345 by King Phayu of Lan Na to hold the ashes of his father. It enshrines the Phra Buddha Sihing image in the Viharn Lai Kham, a hall built between 1815 and 1821 with gold-leaf and lacquer decoration on its walls and pillars.

Wat Chedi Luang is a Buddhist temple in the old city of Chiang Mai, built around a brick chedi begun in the 14th century and completed under King Tilokaraj, when it stood 82 metres high. An earthquake in 1545 brought down its upper 30 metres; the grounds also hold the city pillar Sao Inthakin and a reclining Buddha.

Wat Chiang Man is a Buddhist temple in the north-east of Chiang Mai's old city, built by King Mangrai in 1297 as the city's first temple, on the camp he used while founding Chiang Mai. Its oldest structure is the Chedi Chang Lom, whose base is ringed by the front halves of 15 brick-and-stucco elephants; the main wihan was renovated in the 1920s.

Tha Phae Gate is the eastern gate of Chiang Mai's moated old city, first built under King Mangrai in 1296 as part of the Lan Na capital's walls and once known as Chiang Rueak Gate. The present brick gate and wall sections are a 1985–1986 reconstruction, and the square in front serves as a public gathering place.

A Buddhist temple on Wualai Road in Hai Ya, the silversmiths' quarter just south of Chiang Mai's old city, founded around 1500 under King Mueang Kaeo. Its ordination hall, rebuilt from 2004, is clad inside and out in panels of silver, alloy and aluminium worked by local smiths; women may not enter it. The temple's old chedi collapsed in 2022.

A royal temple on Suthep Road west of Chiang Mai's old city, founded in 1370 by King Kue Na of Lanna in his flower garden for the monk Sumana Thera. Its 48-metre bell-shaped chedi in Sri Lankan style is said to hold a relic of the Buddha, and beside it stand white mausoleums with the ashes of Chiang Mai's royal family, gathered here by Princess Dara Rasmi.

A forest temple at the foot of Doi Suthep, about 1 km south of Chiang Mai University, founded under King Mangrai and restored by King Kue Na in the 14th century, who added the tunnels. Brick passages with Buddha images run beneath a terrace topped by an old chedi; the 15-acre wooded grounds also hold a pond, a meditation centre and trees hung with proverbs.

The remains of an ancient city on the Ping River in Saraphi district, just south of Chiang Mai, built by King Mangrai in the late 13th century as his capital before he founded Chiang Mai. Abandoned after repeated floods and rediscovered in 1984, its excavated brick temple ruins lie among village houses; Wat Chedi Liam, with its five-tiered Mon-style chedi, is still in use.

A zoo of about 81 hectares on Huay Kaew Road at the foot of Doi Suthep, next to Chiang Mai University. It grew from Harold Mason Young's animal collection, opened to the public in 1957, and became the provincial zoo in 1977. Some 400 species are shown, among them koalas, Indochinese tigers and penguins, and its aquarium has a 133-metre walk-through tunnel.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is a Theravada Buddhist temple on Doi Suthep mountain, at 1,073 metres about 15 km west of Chiang Mai city. Founded according to tradition in 1383 to house a relic of the Buddha, it is reached by a staircase of 309 steps lined with naga serpents or by tram, and centres on a gold-plated chedi 24 metres high.