Wat Chedi Luang

Wat Chedi Luang tickets and tours: which one to book

Wat Chedi Luang charges foreign visitors a small entry fee at the gate on Phra Pokklao Road; Thai worshippers enter free. Tickets are not timed and there is nothing to be gained by booking ahead, so the temple is easy to fit into any walk around the old city. Wraps are available for anyone who arrives in shorts or a sleeveless top. Many visitors see it on a guided half-day tour of Chiang Mai's temples. The most common format pairs it with Doi Suthep, the hilltop temple above the city, and with Wat Pha Lat, a small forest monastery beside a waterfall on the old pilgrim trail up the mountain.

Such tours normally include transport in an air-conditioned van or a red songthaew, an English-speaking guide and the entry fees; the funicular or lift at Doi Suthep and drinks are sometimes extra. A guide is worth having here, because the story of the ruined chedi, the Emerald Buddha and the city pillar is not obvious from the site alone. On your own, the temple is a ten-minute walk from Tha Phae Gate or from the Sunday Walking Street, and tuk-tuks and red songthaews reach it from anywhere in town. Several evening walking and cycling tours of the old city also stop here. The temple's daily monk chat costs nothing and needs no booking. The page lists any GetYourGuide tours whose route passes the temple.

Visiting Wat Chedi Luang: what to see and how to behave

The great chedi was begun in the late fourteenth century by King Saen Muang Ma of Lan Na to hold his father's ashes, and was completed in the mid-fifteenth century under King Tilokarat. At about 82 m it was then the tallest structure in the kingdom, and from 1468 the Emerald Buddha now in Bangkok sat in its eastern niche. An earthquake in 1545 brought down the upper part, and a few years later the Emerald Buddha left for Luang Prabang. What you see today is a massive brick ruin, partly reconstructed in the early 1990s; the eastern niche now holds a black jade replica of the Emerald Buddha installed for the 600th anniversary in 1995. Walk all the way round the base. Each side has a staircase guarded by serpent balustrades, and on the south face a row of stone elephants projects from the platform.

The scale is best felt from the far corners of the grounds, where the crumbling top stands against the sky. Near the entrance a large hall holds a standing bronze Buddha cast in the fourteenth century, and another pavilion shelters a reclining Buddha. To one side is the shrine of the Inthakin city pillar, moved here in 1800; by tradition women do not enter it. Look also for the tall dipterocarp trees planted to protect the pillar. Under the trees on the north side, novices hold monk chats, where you can ask questions about Buddhism and monastic life; keep it respectful, and women should avoid touching a monk. Remove shoes before entering halls and walk round the chedi clockwise if you join the worshippers.

Wat Chedi Luang: opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The temple is open from early morning until early evening, roughly sunrise to around 6 pm; check locally, as hours can change. The best times are before 9 am, when the light is soft on the brickwork and the tour vans have not arrived, and the hour before closing, when the chedi turns orange. Monk chats usually run through the morning and afternoon. Chiang Mai's cool season, from November to February, is the most pleasant; March and April can be hot and smoky from agricultural burning, and the rains last from June to October.

Two events are worth planning around. In May the city pillar festival, Inthakin, fills the grounds for about a week with offerings of flowers and candles. In November, during Loy Krathong and Yi Peng, the chedi is lit by candles and paper lanterns and the old city is at its most festive. Buddhist holy days such as Visakha Bucha bring candlelit processions around the chedi in the evening. Allow an hour. Combine it with Wat Phra Singh, Wat Pan Tao next door and, on a Sunday, the walking street market that passes the gate.