Sacred Doi Suthep Temple - one of the oldest Buddhist temple in Thailand!
I am excited to tell you about my trip to Doi Suthep Temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Couple years ago I decided to change something in my life. I heard a lot about meditation retreats and wanted to take part in one. I would say that I am more of a Buddhist than anybody else, so I chose Doi Suthep Temple to stay there for a half month on my meditation course.
Full name of the temple is Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is one of the oldest temples in Thailand, it was founded in the 14th century when there was no Thailand, no Siam but an ancient kingdom of Sukhothai which was situated in Northern part of todays Thailand. There is a beautiful legend, how temple and its first Stupa were built in 1383.
By the legend, a monk whose name was Sumanathera had a vision in his sleep. In his dream, he was told to travel to Pang Cha area and search for a hidden artifact over there. So he traveled to that place and found a relic, which many say was Buddha's shoulder bone. It possessed truly magical powers: it was glowing, could vanish and was able to replicate itself. The monk decided to take the relic to the Sukhothai ruler - King Dhammaraja. The king was not sure if the artifact was original and did not accept it, but another king - Nu Naone of Lan Na invited the monk to visit his kingdom.
As soon, as the relic was delivered to Lamphun, in 1368, it fell apart into 2 pieces. The first piece, the smaller one was kept in Suandok Temple. Another piece was given to the King of Lanna kingdom, who put it on the white elephant's back. Elephants are sacred animals in Thailand, and white ones are supposed to present sacred wisdom and power. So the elephant took the relic to the mountain, known as Doi Suthep, stepped on its top for a while, trumpeted 3 times and then fell dead. It was seen as a sign and the king immediately ordered to found a temple at the same place. Since that moment the history of Doi Suthep Temple had begun.
The relic is held in the Stupa or the Chedi, it is is a hemispherical building containing an artifact connected to Buddha. Usually, it is used for meditation.
Doi Suthep temple is a sacred place to many Thai people, I guess almost everyone in Thailand heard about it.
Doi Suthep Temple is located 1676 meters high, so you can have a great view of Chiang Mai city and the valley from the above.
I have so much more to tell you about my meditation trip and Doi Suthep as well, that I will make another post about this, may be even two posts:) I hope you like the story of the sacred Wat Phra That Doi Suthep and are already willing to visit it:)
Photos taken by Nikon D90.
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This looks so unreal - nice post :)
Thank you, mate! This place is very unreal, and my feelings after the meditation retreat were unreal as well :)
Holy Cow! I would be distracted by so much gold ;) Very impressive photos, stay calm and happy! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, mate!
Amazing photos. That's a lot of gold, or is it brass?
Mostly brass, but partially have real gold too, on the 3rd photo the Buddha statue is covered with small golden leaves. people put it to pay respect to Buddha:)
Beautiful photos and the place looks amazing.
Thank you for your support, Zararina!
Pretty attracting scenery. I guess I will be coming to Thailand some day. Looks like I could take some amazing shots there. Thanks for the enticing read on the historics and mythology of the Thai. It gives a good perspective on those pictures.
Btw. Do you use HDR stacking, or is the Nikon dynamic range really that magnificient by itself? I'm using Dual-ISO on almost all my photos because it gives me an almost HDR like range when doing post edit. The normal dynamic range of the Canon RAW is good but not great, but since I found Magic Lantern and especially the Dual-ISO module on it, I've been sucked into the deep dynamics so that I can't let it go anymore. :)
Thank you, mate, for such a detailed comment! I am fond of history, as you might notice, so I find it obligatory to give some info about culture and traditions so that my readers could feel the atmosphere of ancient Thai Kingdoms:) Glad you mentioned that, Jaro!
I used some post editing with Gimp, unfortunately Nikon's dynamic range is not so perfect:) Wow, I've never heard about this magic Lantern software, it's looks like you get a completely different camera with this app, so many settings, and features!!!
You should definitely come to Thailand asap, I told you my Finnish friend Hanu is living here for half year, photographing nature and models, riding motorcycle and another half year he lives in Finland doing regular job, I think he is happy :)
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Beautiful job taking these photos. Gotta ask, was this trip as meditative as you would've wanted? Or did you find yourself getting distracted along the way? I would've it's so beautiful there
Thank you for your kind comments, Chelsea. The contemplation of nature is the greatest meditation itself, so it only helped:)
Hmm, that's true - just being in nature is therapeutic
Great photos. I've been there many times but never got those shots!
Thanks, mate! I've just been there once, and all the photos were taken in half an hour before leaving, but spending there a couple weeks made me very close to Doi Suthep:) And I tried to show it through my photos :)