Lanna Temple Trails day 3

After Wat Chiang Man I moved on to tour Wat Pan Tao, which is situated on Phrapokklao Road next to Wat Chedi Luang. Wat Pan Tao was built by Crown Prince Mahawong in 1847 to commemorate the occasion of his promotion from crown prince to the new ruler of Chiang Mai. The construction workers were both local people and Burmese workers.
The most interesting thing at Wat Pan Tao is the chapel. In front of the chapel is an ancient woodcarving of “Mom,” a mythical animal said to live in the Himmaparn Forest in Thai folk tales. The Mom is flanked by two monkeys on the left and right. In the middle is a peacock, which is the the symbol of the king of Chiang Mai. This woodcarving is considered the most beautiful and meaningful one in Chiang Mai. When the city celebrated its 700-year anniversary in 1996, it was featured on the stamps produced to commemorate the big event.

“Mom,” a mythical animal

Apart from the lovely old chapel at Wat Pan Tao, there are many precious artifacts kept and displayed in the temple’s assembly building such as the Dhamma Casket, which is an ancient box used for storing the Buddhist scriptures written on palm leaf books. The casket is coated with black lacquer and decorated with gold leaf in Lanna style. It is around150-200 years old. Other valuable ancient objects are “Maiprakap,” a stand for holding up the palm leaf books for reading, and “Maipanchak,” an inscription that shows the titles, number and year of palm leaf books kept at the temple, as well as the names of the