Wat Suan Dok

About

Wat Suan Dok — 'the flower garden temple', also called Wat Buppharam — rests along Suthep Road about a kilometre west of Suan Dok gate, just beyond the old moat of Chiang Mai. The temple is classified as a royal temple of the third class and now also serves as home to the Chiang Mai campus of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya Buddhist University.

King Kue Na of Lanna founded the wat in 1370 CE for the monk Sumana Thera, building it within the older walled settlement of Wiang Suan Dok — an enclave of the Lawa people predating Chiang Mai itself. The king's flower garden gave the temple its original name.

Legend recounts that Maha Sumana Thera, a monk from the Sukhothai kingdom, had discovered through a vision a relic of the Buddha destined for Chiang Mai. At Wat Phra Yuen near Lamphun, the relic miraculously duplicated itself. One image was housed in the new wat as planned, while the other was placed upon a white elephant which climbed Doi Suthep, trumpeted three times, and died at the summit — the spot where Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep was subsequently raised.

The great 48-metre bell-shaped chedi in Sri Lankan style is believed to enshrine the original relic. The sala kan prian east of the chedi was built in 1932 by Khru Ba Sriwichai, who also restored the chedi. The renovated ubosot houses a 4.7-metre bronze Buddha in the bhumisparsha mudra, cast in 1504 CE. Whitewashed mausoleums in the northwest quarter hold the cremated remains of the royal house of Chiang Mai.

History

Wat Suan Dok was founded in 1370 CE by King Kue Na of Lanna for the Sukhothai monk Sumana Thera, built within the earlier walled settlement of Wiang Suan Dok of the Lawa people. The temple's original name, Wat Buppharam Dok Mai, came from the king's flower garden on the site.

Major twentieth-century renewals were led by the famous monk Khru Ba Sriwichai, who in 1932 built the great sermon hall and restored the central chedi. At the start of the twentieth century Princess Dara Rasmi, a consort of King Chulalongkorn and daughter of the Lanna king Inthawichayanon, ordered the cremation ashes of Chiang Mai's royal house to be gathered into the mausoleums at the temple's northwest quarter.