Wat Phra Kaew Don Tao

This temple is considered as the most important temple in Lampang for it housed for 32 years the Emerald Buddha, the national symbol of Thailand which is now inside the Bangkok Grand Palace.

There is an interesting story that when the Emerald Buddha was discovered in the chedi of a temple in Chiang Rai when a lightning struck it, the king of Chiang Mai sent some troops to transfer the image to Chiang Mai. However, the elephant was said to refuse the to take the road going to Chiang Mai, thus, the image stayed in Lampang for many years.

Let the photos below speak of the rich history of the temple.

This is one of the several chapels found around the main temple. This chapel houses the image of the "old buddha"

                          The impressive chedi of the main temple is gilded with
                   bronze tiles and placed on top of a rectangular white-washed base.
                     Beside the main temple is a multi-tiered Burmese style chapel.

This is one of the chapels around the main temple. But at the moment, it doesn't house any Buddha image.

One of the interesting Buddha images around the temple, and the one that we're more familiar with....

I find this image of the reclining Buddha intimate, poetic and too beautiful (Forgive me, I don't even know if these are appropriate words but I couldn't resist using these adjectives.). This particular Buddha image made a great impact and appeal to me----for it made the Buddha more real, sharing the same act as humanly and as mortal as sleeping.

This is the main entrance to the temple.

The entrance to the main temple is lined with sculptures of dragons, evidence of the influence of the Chinese culture.

Forgive the too 80's concept but I just couldn't resist performing the "Kamehame Wave" beside this big dragon!