Wat Chet Yot ( th, วัดเจ็ดยอด, lit: seven-spired temple) or officially called Wat Photharam Maha Wihan ( th, วัดโพธารามมหาวิหาร, from sa, Bōdh Rāma Mahā Vihāra) is a Buddhist temple (

Wat A wat ( km, វត្ត, ; lo, ວັດ, ; th, วัด, ; khb, 「ᩅᨯ᩠ᨰ」(waD+Dha); nod, 「ᩅ᩠ᨯ᩶」（w+Da2)) is a type of Buddhist temple and Hindu temple in Cambodia, Laos, East Shan State, Yunnan, the Southern Provi ...

) in Chiang Mai in

northern Thailand Northern Thailand, or more specifically Lanna, is geographically characterised by several mountain ranges, which continue from the Shan Hills in bordering Myanmar to Laos, and the river valleys which cut through them. Though like most of Thailan ...

. It is a centre of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

for those born in the year of the Snake.

Location

Wat Chet Yot is located northwest of the city centre of Chiang Mai along the Super Highway Chiang Mai - Lampang ( Highway 11), north of the intersection of Huai Kaeo road and Nimmanhemin road.

Construction history

King Tilokarat commissioned the construction of the temple in 1455 CE after he had sent monks to Bagan in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

to study the design of the Mahabodhi temple there, itself a copy of the

Mahabodhi Temple The Mahabodhi Temple (literally: "Great Awakening Temple") or the Mahābodhi Mahāvihāra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is an ancient, but rebuilt and restored Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India, marking the location where the Buddha i ...

of Bodh Gaya,

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

in northern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, the location where

Siddhartha Gautama Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

, the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

, attained enlightenment. According to the Jinakālamālī chronicle, in 1455 CE the king planted a bodhi tree on the spot and in 1476 CE "had established a large

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...

in this monastery", probably for the celebration ceremony commemorating 2000 years of Buddhism. The following year the 8th Buddhist World Council was held at Wat Chet Yot to renew the Tripitaka (the

Pali Canon The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During t ...

Temple structures

The design of the central sanctuary, the Maha Pho wihan (also called Maha Chedi, th, มหาเจดีย์), does indeed somewhat resemble the Mahabodhi temple, clearly having Indian influences. Crowning the

flat roof A flat roof is a roof which is almost level in contrast to the many types of sloped roofs. The slope of a roof is properly known as its pitch and flat roofs have up to approximately 10°. Flat roofs are an ancient form mostly used in arid c ...

of the rectangular windowless building are seven

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

s (In Thai: chet yot) which gives the temple its name: a

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

-like spire with a square base set back from the centre surrounded by four smaller similar spires, and, set atop the two smaller annexes of the main building, two bell-shaped chedis. The interior of the building contains a barrel vaulted corridor which leads to a Buddha statue at its end. Right and left of the Buddha statue narrow stairs lead up to the roof. In days past a bodhi tree grew on top of the roof but which was removed in 1910 CE to prevent the structure from collapse. Women should not climb up to the roof as only men are allowed to enter this part of the temple. The exterior façades of the building feature 70, partially strongly weathered, stucco

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s of Thewada ( Devas), divine beings, the faces of whom have allegedly been modelled after relatives of King Tilokarat.

Other buildings

The extensive temple grounds contain several more chedis (and remains of chedis) in

Lanna The Lan Na Kingdom ( nod, , , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; th, อาณาจักรล้านนา, , ), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state centered in present-day ...

-style (also called: Prasat-style): all are bell-shaped chedis set on bases, with alcoves on four sides containing Buddha statues. The largest of the chedis contains the ashes of King Tilokarat. In the northeast corner of the temple compound is a small

ubosot The ordination hall is a Buddhist building specifically consecrated and designated for the performance of the Buddhist ordination ritual ('' upasampada'') and other ritual ceremonies, such as the recitation of the Patimokkha. The ordination hall ...

featuring an exquisitely carved wooden

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

surrounded by double '' Bai Sema'', boundary stones which designate the sacred area of a temple. A pond and a square

mondop The ''mondop'' ( th, มณฑป, from Pali/Sanskrit ) is a building form in traditional Thai religious architecture featuring a square or cruciform building with a usually pointed roof. In the narrow sense, it refers to an enclosed square buildin ...

are at the southern end of the temple grounds. The mondop features a statue of the Buddha being sheltered by the

nāga The Nagas (IAST: ''nāga''; Devanāgarī: नाग) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. ...

Mucalinda Mucalinda, Muchalinda or Mucilinda is the name of a nāga, a snake-like being, who protected the Gautama Buddha from the elements after his enlightenment. It is said that six weeks after Gautama Buddha began meditating under the Bodhi Tree, t ...

. Several Buddha statues showing different mudra (symbolic hand gestures) are found along the western part of the compound with the explanations of the gestures provided in English on information plaques.

Gallery

File:Chmwatchetyot040823d.jpg, Tilokarat chedi File:Chmwatchetyot0107a.jpg, Chedi Animisa File:Wat Chet Yot 05 Maha Chedi interior.JPG, The interior of the Maha Chedi is undergoing renovation File:Chmwatchetyot040823c.jpg, Gable woodcarving of the ubosot

References

Sources

* Michael Freeman: ''Lanna - Thailand's Northern Kingdom''. River Books, Bangkok 2001, * th, ศิริศกดิ์ คุมรักษา (Sirisak Khumraksa, Publisher): th, หนังสือชุด แผนที่ความรู้ เมืองไทย - ศาสนศิลป์ บน แผ่นดินล้านนา (''Buddhist Art of Lanna''). Plan Readers Publication, Bangkok 2003,

External links

Wat ched Yod (Seven – Spires Temple)

Website of the temple
(in Thai) {{Coord, 18, 48, 32.7, N, 98, 58, 17.94, E, type:landmark_region:TH, display=title Chet Yot