Now that the international schools are on spring break, I decided to play tourist and see some of the sites in Chiang Mai while I’m still here. Ginny had the same thought so we decided to head to the downtown historic area where we could visit the
Three Kings Monument and then a nearby museum. FYI: this monument represents the founder of Chiang Mai (King Mengrai) and his two friends from neighboring states (King Ramkamhaeng and King Ngam Muang) who worked together to lay out the city. Consequently, this statue has become something of an iconic image representing Chiang Mai.
Little did we know how long it would take to walk the 10-12 blocks to get to the monument. Turns out we walked by (and had to visit of course) at least seven temples on our way. There was some amazing architecture along this one street alone! But what surprised me is the number of temples in this one small area of the downtown, until I learned these temples are only seven among a total of 40,717 temples in Thailand with 33,902 still in use!
In walking through these temples and doing a little research, I discovered some interesting facts regarding their design, purpose and classification. For instance, each temple is an enclosed monastery where the wall surrounding the grounds keeps it separated from the outside secular world. Within these walls the buildings are divided into two areas: one area dedicated to Buddha with buildings containing the principle Buddha, relics, scripture and ceremony, while the other section dedicated to the living quarters for the monks.
Typical of most Thai temples are the multiple tiered roof with its significance more functional than spiritual. For instance, while temple roofs are designed to ward off evil spirits in Korea, it seems the temple roof design in Thailand is more ornamental to signify the importance of the building and functional to cover the large interior spaces. Whatever their ultimate purpose, they sure make some incredible visual displays of architecture!
One of the northern region temples we encountered is
Wat Chedi Luang or "Pillar of the City" originally constructed in 1401. It has some striking architecture visible from the street which drew us in to see what the rest of the temple was like...
When all was said and done, we finally did make it to the
Three Kings Monument but it was too late in the afternoon to visit the adjoining museum. Another time, another day. Nothing lost, though, for we still got to experience daily life in the streets of Chiang Mai.
