Wat Suan Dok

The Chiang Mai campus of the Buddhist Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University is housed within the temple compound.

Wat Suan Dok was founded by King Kue Na of Lanna for the monk Sumana Thera in the year 1370 CE.

The outlines of the fortifications can clearly be traced on satellite images, and remains of some of the earthen walls can still be seen north of Suthep road.

When the moment arrived for the relic to be housed in the newly built temple, it miraculously duplicated itself.

One of the relics was housed, as intended, in a shrine inside Wat Buppharam Dok Mai, while the other relic was placed on the back of a white elephant which then climbed up Doi Suthep, the mountain directly west of Chiang Mai, where it trumpeted three times and died.

Chedi, Wat Suan Dok, 2009
Wat Suan Dok in 1886 photographed from above