Wat Chiang Man and the Quiet North-East

The city's oldest temple, its elephant-ringed chedi and the sleepy lanes, morning market and brick bastions of the north-east corner of the moat.

Area

Old City

Start from

Chang Phueak Gate

Distance

about 4 km on foot

Time needed

half a day

Best season

All year; best on cool mornings from November to February

Difficulty

Easy

Transport

On foot or bicycle

Tickets & rules

None; temple dress code applies

Why go

Most visitors cluster around the big temples in the middle of the old city, which leaves the north-east quarter delightfully quiet. Here the lanes are lined with bougainvillea, small wooden houses, family noodle shops and laundries, and the loudest sound may be a rooster or a monk sweeping leaves. It is the best place to feel how ordinary life carries on inside a seven-hundred-year-old city plan.

At its heart is Wat Chiang Man, the oldest temple in Chiang Mai. Its chedi stands on a base ringed with fifteen brick elephants, half emerging from the walls as if they were carrying the whole structure on their backs. Inside the smaller viharn are two tiny, much-loved Buddha images kept behind bars and glass.

The walk also takes in the moat itself, the best-preserved stretch of the old walls and the Jaeng Si Phum bastion at the north-east corner, where the morning light hits the old brick and the moat reflects the trees. Bring a bicycle if you like; this is the gentlest cycling in the city.

The story

Tradition says that King Mangrai lived on this spot while his new city was being built in the 1290s, and that Wat Chiang Man was the first temple founded inside the walls. A stone inscription found here is one of the oldest records of Chiang Mai's founding, giving the date and the names of the kings who helped plan it.

The two images in the small viharn have travelled far in legend. The Phra Sila is a stone relief of the Buddha, said to have come from India, and the Phra Sae Tang Khamani, a small crystal figure, is believed to protect against disaster and to bring rain. Each year during Songkran they are brought out in procession so that people can bathe them in scented water.

The corners of the moat were once fortified bastions, each with its own name and guardian spirit. Jaeng Si Phum, in the north-east, was considered the auspicious heart of the defences and is linked to the city's luck. Chiang Mai's walls were rebuilt many times, after centuries of wars with Burma, before the city was finally resettled in the late eighteenth century under Kawila, the ruler who revived the north after decades of devastation.

Getting there

Start at Chang Phueak Gate, the white elephant gate on the northern side of the moat. Walk south into the lanes to Wat Chiang Man on Ratchaphakhinai Road, then continue east and north towards the Jaeng Si Phum corner. Return along the inner moat road.

Bicycles can be rented from many guesthouses for a small daily fee, and the flat, quiet lanes are pleasant to ride, though traffic on the outer moat roads is fast.

A suggested plan

1. 7:00Start with a bowl of rice soup or a pork-and-rice stall near Chang Phueak Gate, where the night market winds down and the morning starts.
2. 8:00Wat Chiang Man: the elephant chedi first, then the two treasured images in the small viharn.
3. 9:00Wander east through the residential lanes, peeking into smaller temples like Wat Lam Chang.
4. 10:00Walk along the moat to the Jaeng Si Phum bastion and the old wall.
5. 11:00Coffee in a garden café inside the walls before the heat settles in.

Where to stay

The north-east corner of the old city has some of the calmest small guesthouses in Chiang Mai, close enough to walk everywhere but well away from bar noise. The streets around Chang Phueak Gate are also good for cheap evening food.

Good to know

• The pork leg with rice sold in the evenings near Chang Phueak Gate is a local institution; come hungry.
• Many smaller temples have no fees and few visitors; a small donation in the box is appreciated.
• Morning alms rounds happen early along the lanes; watch from a respectful distance.