by Jim Goodman
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| Sriphum Corner, 1989 |
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| Sriphum Corner today |
In 1996 Chiang Mai celebrated
its 700th anniversary.
In preparation for this event the city renovated the five gates around
its old town, added sections of the former walls that were demolished, along
with the city gates, during the Japanese occupation in World War II, and
improved the condition of the four original bastions, which had not been torn
down, that stood at each corner of the city. It also renovated a few of its most famous temples for the
occasion.
However, this process did not
extend to all of Old Chiang Mai’s notable temples. Chiang Mai became the new capital of the independent Kingdom
of Lanna in 1296 and retained that role until conquered by Burma in 1558. While Burmese governors did sometimes
sponsor temple construction in the city, thereby ingratiating themselves with
the natives, the temples most important religiously and politically to the
former regime were ignored and even abandoned.
In 1774 King Kawila of Lampang,
allied with King Taksin of Siam, expelled the Burmese occupiers, but then
removed the remaining population and abandoned the city. After campaigns to drive the Burmese
out of northern Thailand entirely and raids on northeast Burma to kidnap people
and resettle them in Lanna, Kawila began reconstructing Chiang Mai and
officially re-established the city in 1796, five hundred years after its
original foundation.
Kawila oversaw the restoration
of the most important Lanna temples, like Phra Singh, Chedi Luang and Wat
Chiang Man, today’s most popular tourist attractions, but others were left in
dilapidated condition or, except for the original
chedi, left in ruins, their other buildings pilfered for
construction elsewhere.
In some
cases this situation remained even until after the 700
th
anniversary.
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| Wat Inthakin |
In the 21
st
century, in response to both the spurt in tourism, foreign and domestic, and
increasing awareness and pride in its cultural heritage, city authorities began
targeting the last long-neglected monuments for renovation.
Among these was Wat Inthakin, in
the north central part of the old town, which was actually the first religious
building erected in the city during its original construction in the
1290s.
It housed the City Pillar,
its palladium, which, unlike other city pillars in Thailand, was a standing
Buddha image.
(Kawila later
removed it to a separate shrine in Wat Chedi Luang.)
With its limited function, Wat
Inthakin was not a monastery and consists only of its main worship hall (viharn), a couple of old chedis to its rear and another across
the street. The elegant, restored viharn has a two-tiered, nearly black
roof, with gilded edges and gilded embellishments in the front, rendering it
one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.
 |
| museum mural of daily life in the 15th century |
Next to Wat Inthakin is a
museum dedicated to the life and times of King Tilokarat, who reigned 1441-1487,
considered Lanna’s Golden Age.
Tilokarat expanded the kingdom’s territory in all directions, which is
shown on a map inside, and was also a great promoter of Buddhism.
The museum exhibits include wall murals
depicting scenes of the daily life of the commoners, like weaving, cooking,
carrying water and dancing, as well as elephants going off to war.
Elsewhere there are statues of the king
in his court, models of events in his reign, warriors with their weapons and
famous monks of the times.
Altogether, the Inthakin Museum gives a well-rounded picture of everyday
life in Lanna’s Golden Age, from daily chores to royal spectacles, and even the
15
th century style of punishing criminals.
 |
| Chedi Plong |
This century’s renovations
also included sites in the suburbs outside the old walled city.
Haiya, the neighborhood adjacent to the
old town’s southern moat, was home to commoners, particularly crafts workers,
who were not permitted to live within the city proper.
An earthen wall surrounded the area and
residents had their own
chedis and
temples.
Suriyawong Road, directly
south of Chiang Mai Gate, hosts a few of these, including a lone brick chedi in the Sukhothai style and a
couple of temple compounds. The
further of these, Wat Yang Kuang, features a recently restored chedi. Rising from an octagonal base, except for its gilded crown
at the very top, it is all white, making it look almost like a modern creation.
In contrast, the restored Chedi Plong at Wat Chiang Chom, north of the
old town near Sri Wattana market, retains its original brick structure and
unusual circular shape. The
adjoining temple compound is all newly rebuilt, and the Buddha image at the
base of the chedi is recent, but the chedi itself is basically the original
one, with a shape unique to the city and representative of the great variety of
chedi styles erected in Old Chiang
Mai.
 |
| the gutters and chedi at Wat Jedlin |
Within the old city, the most
important renovation was that of Wat Jedlin, on Phrapokllao Road, south of the
city center.
It was one of those
temples abandoned during the Burmese occupation, not re-established by Kawila
or anyone since, including the committee assigned to preparing Chiang Mai for
its 700
th anniversary.
It was originally the site for the coronation of King Kae Mu, the last
monarch of independent Lanna.
Until 2004, all that remained of the
wat
was its
chedi and a large Buddha head
on a platform next to a
pipal
tree.
Behind it was a swamp.
The renovation program began
with enclosing the compound with a wall and erecting an elaborate brick and
stucco entrance gate on Phrapokklao Road.
Unfortunately, appreciation of this is marred by the presence of a
jumble of wires attached to a concrete pillar beside it. Visitors usually go in through the
wider vehicle entrance to its left. The new, triple-roofed viharn is just behind the entrance gate. Inside in front of the
altar are a few very realistic statues of the temple’s most famous monks, along
with a Chinese Buddha in the front, a Burmese one in the middle and a large
Lanna-style Buddha in the back.
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| antique Buddha head, Wat Jedlin |
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| the praying skeleton |
The antique Buddha head in the
courtyard next to the
viharn has also
been restored, with a concrete nose and left eye.
A small altar behind it features a mock skeleton dressed in
a white suit.
When people drop a
donation into the box beside it, the skeleton bows forward with hands folded
and recites a prayer.
Right behind the
viharn is the original
chedi, dating back to at least the 16
th
century.
On the lowest tier of the
base sit a row of nine round stone balls.
Called
luknimit in
Thai, these stones are ordinarily buried in the ground to mark the boundary of
the temple when it is first built or undergoes restoration.
If they are out in public it indicates
a reconstruction or renovation is being planned though that may be a long way
off yet.
Meanwhile devotees come
to make merit by adorning the stones with wafers of gold leaf.
On the day of the
luknimits’ ceremonial burial, people come to add to that burial
objects that symbolize their desires in the same hole as the
luknimits:
notebooks and pencils to improve their memories, needles to
sharpen their brains and threads to represent a continuous line of progress in
their lives.
 |
| symbolic animal, Wat Jedlin |
Wat Jedlin mean the Temple of
the Seven Gutters, or Troughs, that have been mounted once again next to the c
hedi.
In classical times the king allegedly sat at the end of
these gutters for a ceremonial cleansing bath.
Nowadays a Buddha image sits at the end of the gutters,
bathed during major festivals.
The swamp behind the chedi has been cleaned up and reduced to
an attractive pond. A rickety
bamboo bridge spans it, with rest stops along the way, and ends at the monks’
quarters on the other side.
Visitors can enroll in a session of Monk Chat, also offered at other
Chiang Mai temples, and converse with English-speaking monks about Buddhism,
monastic life or anything else.
The monks are from the
immediate neighborhood, for the restoration of Wat Jedlin went beyond
historical reconstruction to revival of an institution. An example of its new neighborhood
relevance is the contribution to the compound of a new symbolic sculpture of a
strange black and white animal with four ears and five eyes, mounted next to
the old Buddha head. A poster next
to it explains that the creature represents Buddhist precepts. The four ears
represent the four virtues of loving kindness, compassion, empathy and
equanimity. The five eyes stand
for the five taboos against killing, stealing, unlawful sex, harmful speech and
using intoxicants.
 |
| pond in front of Wat Jedlin's monks' quarters |
The other major temple
restoration, actually completed before that of Wat Jedlin, was of Wat Lokmolee,
just outside the old city moat on its northwest side.
King Ku Na, the 6
th monarch of the Mengrai
Dynasty, who ruled 1367-1388, established the site as a residence for ten
Burmese monks he invited to live in Lanna.
Its importance rose in 1527 with the construction of a
viharn and the second tallest
chedi in Chiang Mai, after the one at
Wat Chedi Luang.
From then on it
was known as Wat Lokmolee, the Topknot of the World.
This was also the year Lanna’s
Golden Age ended and the kingdom began its decline. King Ket Chettharat, who had just come to power, was a weak
ruler who alienated his court officials, who deposed him in 1538. But his son proved an even worse ruler
and these same officials deposed and executed him in 1543 and restored Ket
Chettharat. Two years later he
also suffered assassination and his daughter Chiraprapha became Queen
Regent.
Two weeks after her accession
a major earthquake struck Chiang Mai and toppled the towering chedi at Wat Chedi Luang. Shortly afterwards Ayutthaya invaded
Lanna. Unable to raise enough
troops from the other parts of the country, perhaps because she was a woman,
she had to agree to Ayutthaya’s terms.
When Ayutthaya attacked again the following year her forces defeated
them.
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| the viharn's front entrance |
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| the viharn's side entrance |
Then she abdicated in favor of
her son Sethathirat, who ruled just one year and then moved to Luang Phabang to
become king there, taking the Emerald Buddha of Chiang Mai with him.
Lanna’s misfortune continued as the
country was without a king at all for three years.
Finally, Mae Ku mounted the throne, but wasted the country’s
resources on inconclusive border wars.
In 1558 King Bayinnaung of Pegu captured the city after only token
resistance.
Mae Ku served as a vassal
ruler until deposed and exiled to Burma in 1564. His wife succeeded him in the role as Queen Wisuttha Thewi
until her death in 1578. From then
on the Burmese installed their own sovereigns. Wat Lokmolee lost its royal patronage. Its chedi
housed the remains of the murdered Ket Chettharat, probably those of
Chiraprapha and for certain those of Wisuttha Thewi. But it was no longer an active temple. Its neglected buildings, except for the
chedi, which remained in place right
down to the 21st century, fell into ruin and eventually people
removed the bricks and timber.
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| Phya Phom, the god with four heads |
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| roof decorations on the viharn |
Reconstruction began in 2003
by walling off the compound, erecting a tall, ornate entrance gate and building
a new
viharn in the classic Lanna
style with a triple roof of dark tiles.
Tall, carved staffs, with portraits of the twelve calendar animals, flank
the front and side entrances.
Carved plaques depicting scenes from Buddhist mythology grace the
interior walls and the space above the entrance.
The interior features a massive seated Buddha, decorated
walls and a ceiling painted with floral and geometric designs and a scene from
the Buddha’s life.
Besides the monks’ quarters,
the temple’s renovation included the addition of features not part of the
original compound. Now there are
statues of Phra Phom, the four-headed Thai equivalent of the Hindu Creator God
Brahma, a multi-armed bodhisattva Guan Yin, the Mahayana Buddhist goddess of
compassion, and a reclining Ganesh, the elephant-headed son of Shiva.
In front of the chedi is a rope pulley, for a bamboo
tube attached to a gilded, dragon-headed bird. Devotees fill the tube with water and then pull it on the
rope high up on the chedi. At the end it dumps the water to splash
on one of the Buddha images on a tier of the chedi, an act of merit for Thai Buddhists.
 |
| statue of Queen Chiraprapha |
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| devotional water tube at the chedi |
The most notable addition,
though, is the shrine to Queen Chiraprapha just inside the compound.
The bronze sculpture dates its creation
to 2003, the year of the temple’s reconstruction, and is the only reminder of
her historical existence in the city.
She ruled Lanna only about a year and a half and the circumstances of
her abdication, and what happened to her afterwards, remain undocumented and
unclear.
Yet the shrine has become
popular among Chiang Mai women and fresh flowers and offerings mark the site
every day.
After all, she was
independent Lanna’s only queen, obviously installed after her father’s
deposition because she was qualified, She abdicated after defeating and
inflicting great losses on Ayutthaya’s second invasion, so one could say she
retired in triumph.
All those
factors make her, in the minds of Chiang Mai’s female devotees, worthy of
veneration.
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| the restored Wat Lokmolee |
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