Day 2 in Chiang Rai we set out to explore on our own. Sadly without our dedicated van and driver. Sigh. But one must go as the locals or some other words to sooth my broken heart.
Anyway, on our way to one of the sites on my list, we stumbled across Wat Ming Muang.
According to the sign, helpfully translated to English, ‘Wat Ming Muang is the ancient temple and its age is the same as Chiang Rai City. It is built by Queen Ta La Mae Sri; King Mung Rai’s wife.”
You get the general idea. Not how I might have said it, but it gets the point across.
So I am learning that temple is never one building. I am used to the churches in Iowa, where many are one building, serve all purpose type of places. Temple means ‘complex’ of buildings around here. And usually a lot of statues and places to drop a few coins and a prayer.
Viharn Mai Lai Khum is the wooden chapel (“chapel” is the word on the sign, not mine).is the mixture design of Thai Yai (Myanmar) and Lanna. Or so said another very helpful plaque. I did not get a good picture of the front of the building, but it was guarded by naga, and whatever the tall statues are.
The ridges of the roof is decorated with 34 swans according to the sign. No idea why 34, but there were a lot of something up there. I did not see 34, and I saw elephants, not swans, but I may have been looking at the wrong thing.
Again, my friendly sign informed me “Inside the chapel is exquisitely decorated and gilded over the lacquer surface. Its ceiling is built in Dtrai poom (three worlds_ style).
This is what I saw:
This temple has a Buddha’s relic. Not sure what the relic is exactly, but the Ming Muang stupa is where it is held.
There is also n a nice shrine dedicated to the king and queen. It is guarded by elephants, a horses, and a lot of little guardian statues.
Not sure what this building was, as it was closed for renovation, but it was covered in elephants, and the very unusual elephant naga guardians.
Elephants are prevalent in this temple, which begs the question as to why. which was answered by a very helpful sign found as we were leaving.
The temple was called Wat Chang Mob before it was called wat Ming Muang. Chang Mob means ‘kneeling elephant,’ and was apparently named for a water well whose roof had a statue of a kneeling elephant.
No idea who built the roof and the elephant statue over the well, but before it was there, the area was a fertile swampland that elephants rested and played in.
Might have been how humans discovered the well, which led to the statue, but the roof and statue made the well visible for travelers from a distance, so they all came to drink from the waters, which were believed to bring them good fortune. The well still exists somewhere on the site.
But because of the well, there will always be elephants here.
This is also the temple I learned that there are specific Buddha statues for each day of the week, and one is to make offerings to the statue that corresponds to the day of the week you are born.
Except Wednesday is weird because it has a ‘morning’ buddha and and ‘afternoon’ buddha. So there are 8 total statues instead of 7.
The statues at this site sit on either side of the ‘entry statue,’ or at least that is what I call it. The red pill shaped objects on either side each house 1 ‘day of the week’ Buddha, and there is a slot for money o r offerings in front of each.
For a ‘random’ temple on our path, this was a good one. I really liked how dedicated to the elephant theme they were and even without a guide, there was a lot of information I could take away from it.
However, if we stop at any and all random temples, we will never get out of Chiang Rai. They are as frequent as 7-Eleven’s and hospitals here. Every street has at least one.
