Wat Inthakhin Sadue Mueang
Wat Inthakhin Sadue Mueang
4.5
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- 253SASingapore, Singapore3,379 contributionsAn aura of serenityWe came upon Wat Inthakhin on our walks in Chiang Mai old city, and it was a beautiful and breathtaking monument. The temple exudes an aura of calm and serenity which you will experience once you enter the premise. All you hear will be the leaves rustling in the breeze and the hum of chants in the background. An oasis for the tired soul.Visited December 2023Travelled with familyWritten 6 January 2024
- SuratrichardSurat Thani, Thailand2,513 contributionsDelightful templeWe came across this quite small temple by accident but it’s certainly worth finding! It’s not extensive but there are some beautiful and very peaceful areas. Even though it’s in the middle of the bustling old town, it was very quiet and certainly an appropriate place to sit and contemplate. Entrance is free and when we visited mid morning, there weren’t many other tourists around. Take time to look at some of the details in the buildings. Well worth visiting.Visited December 2023Travelled as a coupleWritten 17 January 2024
- Doc BokVientiane, Laos242 contributionsIndra's PillarThis is a small temple near the center of the city. Said to have been the place where King Mangrai was killed by a lightning strike, the stupa now houses his treasures. It's well worth a short visit to this small temple.Visited April 2024Travelled as a coupleWritten 22 September 2024
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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4.5
212 reviews
Excellent
88
Very good
102
Average
22
Poor
0
Terrible
0
253SA
Singapore, Singapore3,379 contributions
Dec 2023 • Family
We came upon Wat Inthakhin on our walks in Chiang Mai old city, and it was a beautiful and breathtaking monument. The temple exudes an aura of calm and serenity which you will experience once you enter the premise. All you hear will be the leaves rustling in the breeze and the hum of chants in the background. An oasis for the tired soul.
Written 7 January 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
CKF
CT2,162 contributions
Jan 2020
Our guide book described this wat as "postcard perfect"--and it certainly was! Situated on an odd triangular piece of land surrounded by roads and traffic, Wat Inthakhin is little oasis, almost gingerbread-style in appearance. Do yourself a favor and walk all the way around to see the stupa as well.
In the city of temples, this one is worth the stop!
In the city of temples, this one is worth the stop!
Written 21 January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Doc Bok
Vientiane, Laos242 contributions
Apr 2024 • Couples
This is a small temple near the center of the city. Said to have been the place where King Mangrai was killed by a lightning strike, the stupa now houses his treasures. It's well worth a short visit to this small temple.
Written 23 September 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Edith311
Canberra, Australia11 contributions
Dec 2019
Wat Inthakhin is a tiny lovely wat near the Three Kings monument which sits at a strange angle to the street. To the left there is an interesting museum. The novices might take you round. The night markets lap around it.
Written 5 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tina N
Vancouver, Canada73 contributions
Nov 2019
The temple is in the suburbs of Chiangmai. We were on a tour and it took us about half hour to get there. The whole setting was just awesome. You can spend at least an hour there to take in the view and visit inside all the temples, from the beautiful front and back. All the sculptures were amazing. It was worth every minute, and it was free too. Remember to wear long pants or bring a big scarf to cover your legs.
Written 21 November 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ryan R
Kaysville, UT1,169 contributions
Aug 2019
We stopped by this temple on a bike tour of the temple. It was small and beautiful. It had a variety of Buddha statues outside representing different spiritual ideologies. We enjoyed our time here.
Written 23 August 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
CALPerth
PERTH169 contributions
Mar 2017 • Solo
The Diorama style displays are very well done with enough explanation alongside to understand what it represents ..it's a colourful display most of which is on the ground floor. No fee. Cool and quiet.
Well worth visiting.
No photos allowed.
Well worth visiting.
No photos allowed.
Written 8 March 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Chris B
Kimberley Region, Australia86 contributions
Oct 2014 • Solo
This temple is very unique and in actuality a rather recent revival of a very old monastery in Chiang Mai.
This temple can claim to hold a lineage at least as old as that of Wat Chiang Man, the oldest of Chiang Mai’s temples, though the temple itself is not in its original state.
At the time of King Mengrai’s monumental building of the city of Chiang Mai, beginning in 1296 AD the city was planned to symbolise the universe. The city was, in fact, designed as a huge, living mandala along traditional Buddhist and Hindu lines making the city itself a sacred entity.
The city walls represent the four points of the compass and further afield 8 temple chedis mark the eight cardinal points. The intersection of lines dissecting all these points was the centre of the city or the Sadue Muang, meaning the “navel of the city”. The temple established here at that time was named Wat Sadue Mueang to safeguard the sacred navel of the city.
So it was here that the original temple and the chedis nearby marked the inaugural centre of the universe that Chiang Mai was created to represent. The temple was established here to maintain the “Lak Mueang”, the foundation pillar of the city which was also established here. The name of Chiang Mai’s pillar is “Sao Inthakhin”. The original viharn (temple hall) has long disappeared but the old chedis (pagodas, stupas) remain and a new viharn is receiving final touches at this time of reconstruction.
In many ancient cultures around the world a ceremonial pole, post or pillar is a significant metaphorical symbol of a bridge or direct link between heaven and earth, between humans and gods, the universe and the planet. This particular pillar derives from the ubiquitous Hindu influences in South East Asian Buddhist cultures that illustrate the religious influence that Indian based cosmologies have played in this area over thousands of years.
The Sao Inthakhin, Chiang Mai’s city pillar (Chao Mueang), is then the mystical umbilical cord sustaining the living city by channelling universal powers of protection and good fortune directly into the city’s navel. The pillar subsequently needs to be tended to and revitalised regularly in order for the unseen universal “cord” to remain healthy and effective. The ‘birth’ of the city as a living entity meant that an auspicious birth time was necessary for a good zodiacal horoscope to be possible. This was carefully seen to by King Mengrai in consultation with his friends and allies the other two kings. And, of course, to this day the “City Longevity Ceremony” is re-enacted annually to keep the citizens’ moral behaviour and spirits high in order to ensure the power of the city pillar remains intact and the city remains vibrant, serene and prosperous. These rituals are all to do with keeping the city’s chakras – like those of the human body – healthy and vital.
From King Mengai’s time for 500 years the pillar resided here at Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang but for the last 200 years of that time the Burmese armies held control over northern Thailand and for a while the city was abandoned due to its citizens being deported to Burma as slave labour or having fled to the south. Eventually in the eighteenth century an alliance of Thai Kingdoms once again overcame the Burmese, reoccupied the sacred city and installed Chao Kawila in 1800 AD as regent of Chiang Mai with the powers of a King. He immediately set about to repopulate and revitalise the city, a rebirth so to speak. This rebuilding was known as “filling the baskets with vegetables and filling the city with men” period, as Chao Kawila brought artisans and tradespeople from other parts of the Lanna kingdom back to Chiang Mai to resettle the area.
As part of the rebirth he moved the Sao Inthakhin to reside at Wat Chedi Luang where he built a large shrine to protect it guarded by the two giant ogres which originally brought Indra’s pillar to the first peoples in the area.
The legends of the ethnic Lua people tell of Indra, the king of Hindu gods, gifting a sacred pillar to the Lua people for the protection and prosperity of their ancient city, once in the same area. Indra withdrew his pillar (and protection) when the people fell into unvirtuous activities. Calamities struck and the Lua people petitioned Indra to return the pillar. As punishment Indra would not return the original pillar but gave the people instructions and conditions to build a Chao Mueang themselves and stipulated the rituals, ceremonies and behaviours necessary for its continued powerful influence on behalf of the city and people. This according to the Lua of today is the Sao Inthakhin resurrected by King Mengrai and now housed in Wat Chedi Luang.
So the tantalising mystery that surrounds Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang is just how far back do its origins actually go? This is a question that only time and archaeological research can eventually uncover.
Today this temple compound is home to a sparkling new Viharn, possibly the prettiest of the night time sights in the streets of the centre of the city. The viharn houses a huge Buddha statue that was originally installed by King Chao Kawila but has been restored and enlarged since that time into the resplendent and awe-inspiring figure it is today. The temple compound also houses an amazing museum that is little known but highly recommended due to its high standard of displays held in a deceptively large space hidden behind a modest outside facade. The old chedi to the rear of the viharn dates back to the 15th or 16th centuries and the chedi to be seen opposite in the grounds of the Arts and Cultural Centre apparently dates back to the 14th century further propounding the mystery of this “Sadue Muang” or navel of the city. Also in the open compound is a quiet reference to the Sao Inthakhin in a shrine guarded by two daemons where there is the four sided Buddha statue held in the open-sided ‘mondop’ alongside the restored old well.
Exactly why King Kawila moved the Sao Inthakhin away from here is not known but the sacred, mystical heart of the old city is steadily being restored to former glories by the will and enthusiasm of the monks of Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang led by their effervescent head monk.
This is a temple you can hardly miss, especially at night, and is a part of a brilliantly conceived day-long adventure into Lanna Kingdom culture and history that is laid out in the museum here, the Arts and Cultural Centre next door and across the road at the Lanna Folkife Museum where there is also a great cafe and coffee house for a break in the mind boggling array of brilliant world class displays found in all three places. This cultural hub is a definite MUST SEE for all visitors and especially for us ‘culture vultures’.
So do yourself a favour and don’t miss the “Sadue Muang” area of the city and especially this enchanting temple Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang.
This temple can claim to hold a lineage at least as old as that of Wat Chiang Man, the oldest of Chiang Mai’s temples, though the temple itself is not in its original state.
At the time of King Mengrai’s monumental building of the city of Chiang Mai, beginning in 1296 AD the city was planned to symbolise the universe. The city was, in fact, designed as a huge, living mandala along traditional Buddhist and Hindu lines making the city itself a sacred entity.
The city walls represent the four points of the compass and further afield 8 temple chedis mark the eight cardinal points. The intersection of lines dissecting all these points was the centre of the city or the Sadue Muang, meaning the “navel of the city”. The temple established here at that time was named Wat Sadue Mueang to safeguard the sacred navel of the city.
So it was here that the original temple and the chedis nearby marked the inaugural centre of the universe that Chiang Mai was created to represent. The temple was established here to maintain the “Lak Mueang”, the foundation pillar of the city which was also established here. The name of Chiang Mai’s pillar is “Sao Inthakhin”. The original viharn (temple hall) has long disappeared but the old chedis (pagodas, stupas) remain and a new viharn is receiving final touches at this time of reconstruction.
In many ancient cultures around the world a ceremonial pole, post or pillar is a significant metaphorical symbol of a bridge or direct link between heaven and earth, between humans and gods, the universe and the planet. This particular pillar derives from the ubiquitous Hindu influences in South East Asian Buddhist cultures that illustrate the religious influence that Indian based cosmologies have played in this area over thousands of years.
The Sao Inthakhin, Chiang Mai’s city pillar (Chao Mueang), is then the mystical umbilical cord sustaining the living city by channelling universal powers of protection and good fortune directly into the city’s navel. The pillar subsequently needs to be tended to and revitalised regularly in order for the unseen universal “cord” to remain healthy and effective. The ‘birth’ of the city as a living entity meant that an auspicious birth time was necessary for a good zodiacal horoscope to be possible. This was carefully seen to by King Mengrai in consultation with his friends and allies the other two kings. And, of course, to this day the “City Longevity Ceremony” is re-enacted annually to keep the citizens’ moral behaviour and spirits high in order to ensure the power of the city pillar remains intact and the city remains vibrant, serene and prosperous. These rituals are all to do with keeping the city’s chakras – like those of the human body – healthy and vital.
From King Mengai’s time for 500 years the pillar resided here at Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang but for the last 200 years of that time the Burmese armies held control over northern Thailand and for a while the city was abandoned due to its citizens being deported to Burma as slave labour or having fled to the south. Eventually in the eighteenth century an alliance of Thai Kingdoms once again overcame the Burmese, reoccupied the sacred city and installed Chao Kawila in 1800 AD as regent of Chiang Mai with the powers of a King. He immediately set about to repopulate and revitalise the city, a rebirth so to speak. This rebuilding was known as “filling the baskets with vegetables and filling the city with men” period, as Chao Kawila brought artisans and tradespeople from other parts of the Lanna kingdom back to Chiang Mai to resettle the area.
As part of the rebirth he moved the Sao Inthakhin to reside at Wat Chedi Luang where he built a large shrine to protect it guarded by the two giant ogres which originally brought Indra’s pillar to the first peoples in the area.
The legends of the ethnic Lua people tell of Indra, the king of Hindu gods, gifting a sacred pillar to the Lua people for the protection and prosperity of their ancient city, once in the same area. Indra withdrew his pillar (and protection) when the people fell into unvirtuous activities. Calamities struck and the Lua people petitioned Indra to return the pillar. As punishment Indra would not return the original pillar but gave the people instructions and conditions to build a Chao Mueang themselves and stipulated the rituals, ceremonies and behaviours necessary for its continued powerful influence on behalf of the city and people. This according to the Lua of today is the Sao Inthakhin resurrected by King Mengrai and now housed in Wat Chedi Luang.
So the tantalising mystery that surrounds Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang is just how far back do its origins actually go? This is a question that only time and archaeological research can eventually uncover.
Today this temple compound is home to a sparkling new Viharn, possibly the prettiest of the night time sights in the streets of the centre of the city. The viharn houses a huge Buddha statue that was originally installed by King Chao Kawila but has been restored and enlarged since that time into the resplendent and awe-inspiring figure it is today. The temple compound also houses an amazing museum that is little known but highly recommended due to its high standard of displays held in a deceptively large space hidden behind a modest outside facade. The old chedi to the rear of the viharn dates back to the 15th or 16th centuries and the chedi to be seen opposite in the grounds of the Arts and Cultural Centre apparently dates back to the 14th century further propounding the mystery of this “Sadue Muang” or navel of the city. Also in the open compound is a quiet reference to the Sao Inthakhin in a shrine guarded by two daemons where there is the four sided Buddha statue held in the open-sided ‘mondop’ alongside the restored old well.
Exactly why King Kawila moved the Sao Inthakhin away from here is not known but the sacred, mystical heart of the old city is steadily being restored to former glories by the will and enthusiasm of the monks of Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang led by their effervescent head monk.
This is a temple you can hardly miss, especially at night, and is a part of a brilliantly conceived day-long adventure into Lanna Kingdom culture and history that is laid out in the museum here, the Arts and Cultural Centre next door and across the road at the Lanna Folkife Museum where there is also a great cafe and coffee house for a break in the mind boggling array of brilliant world class displays found in all three places. This cultural hub is a definite MUST SEE for all visitors and especially for us ‘culture vultures’.
So do yourself a favour and don’t miss the “Sadue Muang” area of the city and especially this enchanting temple Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang.
Written 21 November 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Vanessa
Lisbon, Portugal25 contributions
Oct 2019 • Couples
Very beautiful and no one to bother you....The monks continue with their daily lives. Recommended...
Written 31 October 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dan Maarek
Tel Aviv, Israel16,162 contributions
Nov 2018
We were in Chiang Mai for 5 days last November for Yi Peng and Loy Krathong (Lantern Festival), and we had planned a 3 day Temple circuit in the Old City.
We had put on our list of course the most famous ones in the Old City, like Wat Chedi Luang Varavihara and Wat Phra Singh which are amazing, and we were on our way to our hotel back from them (just a few hundred meters from them, which is exactly the reason we chose an hotel right in the heart of the Old City).
So of course we passed by this Temple.
There are endless beautiful Temples in the Old City of Chiang Mai and this one, although not in the top 10 famous ones, was however a beautiful one to stop by.
This one, like almost them all (the not so famous ones which are always overcrowded by tourists), was nice enough, serene, quiet, an island of peace...
As always, besides stopping by the Temples, I also and always do recommend to plan a Massage break in the middle of the afternoon to relax from a long day walk and give you a fresh and restful start after before the evening and ...more Temples ;-)
We had put on our list of course the most famous ones in the Old City, like Wat Chedi Luang Varavihara and Wat Phra Singh which are amazing, and we were on our way to our hotel back from them (just a few hundred meters from them, which is exactly the reason we chose an hotel right in the heart of the Old City).
So of course we passed by this Temple.
There are endless beautiful Temples in the Old City of Chiang Mai and this one, although not in the top 10 famous ones, was however a beautiful one to stop by.
This one, like almost them all (the not so famous ones which are always overcrowded by tourists), was nice enough, serene, quiet, an island of peace...
As always, besides stopping by the Temples, I also and always do recommend to plan a Massage break in the middle of the afternoon to relax from a long day walk and give you a fresh and restful start after before the evening and ...more Temples ;-)
Written 12 October 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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