WAT SUAN DOK

In the 13th century, a monk dreamed that an angel indicated the location of a relic buried under the ruins of a temple. He began to search for it, but it was a ray of sunlight that miraculously came out of the ground that showed him the location. He unearthed a bronze box which contained a silver box, then a coral one. The latter contained a ball of one centimetre in diameter radiating a bright light. This ball caused conflicts between the kings who all wanted to appropriate it. One day, it died out and was returned to the monk. Later, King Kuena of Chiang Mai invited the monk. The bonze showed him the relic and placed it in a bowl of water: the ball began to spin and rain began to fall, in the middle of the dry season! The king, dazzled, had a chedi built to house the ball, at the Suan Dok site. But when he wanted to put it down, the ball split into two parts. One was put back in its boxes and remained there, the other was deposited at Doi Suthep. Wat Suan Dok was built in 1333 by King Ku Na in the garden of his palace, known as the "garden of flowers", which gave its name to the temple. Entirely rebuilt in 1932 by the destroyer, sorry, the restorer of the monuments of Chiang Mai, a man named Khruba Srivijaya. The chedi containing the relic is now decorated at the top with tiles. Behind it are the chedi where the ashes of the Chiang Mai royal family are kept (there are still descendants living very discreetly).