Wat Pa Pao is on Mani Nopparat Road, Tambon Sriphum, Mueang District, Chiang Mai. The temple has become the center of the ethnic Tai Yai people in Chiang Mai city. There is evidence that Phrachao Inthawitchayanonda, the seventh ruler of Chiang Mai (1873-1896), and Tai Yai people built a temple in the area of Ton Pao forest so the temple was called Wat Pa Pao.
The structures in this temple were of the Burmese style of the 24th Century B.E. with highly skilled craftsmanship in evidence in the wood carving decorations on the buildings inside the temple as well as the stucco designs on the vihara and the chedi along with permanent rectangular flags at the sides of the chedi. This temple contains many viharas, each in different styles. For example, the wooden vihara has tiered roofs in the style called the Phraya that decorated beautifully with wood carvings. The plaster work vihara has a structure distinctive from other temples. Its base is in a western style where its door and window frames are elaborate stucco arches. Behind it stands a mondop with a Buddha image bay and an open deck on top. Above the mondop is a tiered square base chedi with umbrella decorations at the top.
The principal chedi of the temple is a small chedi decorated with stucco work. Its base contains Buddha image bays with stairs going up on four sides. The stairs banisters were formed in the shape of Singha or mythical lions.
Reference
Chiang Mai Teachers College. Arts and Cultural Centre. (1991?). Wat samkhan khong nakhon Chiang Mai lem 1 (significant temples of Chiang Mai City, vol. 1). (in Thai).
Chiang Mai: So. Sap Karnphim.
Chiang Mai University Library
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1989
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