Day 17: Doi Suthep

Chiang Mai is brimful of Wats, but the famous one, the one in all the guidebooks, is an hour outside town on a mountainside. It’s rightly famous. Doi Suthep — actually Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, the temple on the Doi Suthep mountain — is extraordinary.

Getting There

Following the helpful directions here, I made my way to the Chang Pauk gate of Chiang Mai’s old city, getting only mildly swindled by a tul-tuk driver to do so. There the cluster of red SongTheaw were ready to go when the number of passengers reached a profitable level. That worked out great for me since I needed to eat. The only unfortunate thing about the deal was that the driver wanted to wait only 90 minutes for us at the temple. I was willing to chance finding another when then time ran down, but 90 minutes turned out to be fine. The place isn’t vast, it’s dense and intricate. I even took a picture of the license plate to get back on the right one, like a proper well-behaved fare. ฿100 for two 45 minute rides and a 90 minute wait is a fair deal to me.

Once you make it through the choking city traffic and up the winding mountain roads, you end up at a sprawling market at the base of the stairway to the temple. Lots of food, lots of tourist knickknacks. The smell of cook fires, grilled sausage and incense. Massive quantities of the usual tourist gear: elephant pants and pashminas, bracelets and purses. Less common but unsurprising given the location was the awesome variety of Buddhas in the stalls. Every shape, material and size. Tiny statues, wall mounted heads, amulets, paintings. I was glad to think of my backpack and its utter lack of extra space and passed on by.

Next climb the stairway. It’s long. Some 308 steps evidently. An endless river of people. A people-fall. All the way up various kids’ groups and charities plead their case to the crowd. Sometimes with signs. Sometimes with singing and instruments.

Atop the stairs, pay the ฿30 (foreigner!) entrance fee and you’re in a tiny village of gold and emerald and oil lamp smoke. The sound of the low murmur of the crowd and the ring of devotional bells; some rung by the devoted, most by children devoted to play.

Like a village there’s an outer wall with a series of pagodas communicating with the interior where all the altars are and the Chedi with its reliquary of the Buddha sits. Shoes off to get into the interior. Modest dress only. My shorts were evidently long enough since I didn’t qualify for rental sarong. As far as temples go, it seems like it takes fewer clothes to be modest as a man than as a woman.

The outside is beautiful. The inside is overwhelmingly magnificent. It’s amazing that for all the huge quantities of gold used in the decoration, none of it is gaudy. In fact it’s amazing. And this from the perspective of someone who doesn’t have special fondness for gold.

As with the other Wats, Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, hosts the same curious mix of wide-eyed tourists from all cultures, the mainly Thai faithful and monks. These separate communities commingle around the fantastic artworks and structures. The faithful and other tourists alike are recorded for posterity from a thousand different camera lenses. One of these was mine and captured the photo below of the faithful entering the Chedi behind the Buddha entering Nibbana.

The overall experience was wonderful. For such a crowd, there’s an astonishing amount of peaceful respect. Almost nobody is loud or annoying. The art is magnificent, the clear result of the concentration of huge wealth for centuries to a single purpose. The wealth given as alms has nowhere to go but decoration. The monks are propertyless and live surrounded in the finest objects the best craftspeople have made over the better part of a millennium. It’s a truly beautiful place to be.