Experience Chiang Rai’s stunning shrines with a self-guided tour

For many decades, visitors knew Chiang Rai only as a jumping off point for tours to the Golden Triangle or as a base for treks to hilltribe villages, not as a destination in its own right. But in recent years, the city has become famous for several stunning new buildings, and a tour is a great way to tune in to the artistic spirit of Chiang Rai.

Starting to the south of the city at the White Temple – known as Wat Rong Khun – you’ll head north and cross the Kok River for a look at the Blue Temple (Wat Rong Suea Ten), move further north to the Black House (aka Baan Dam), then west to Wat Huay Pla Kang before finishing up at Wat Klang Wiang, smack dab in the heart of Chiang Rai. Keep your cameras (and a bottle of water!) at the ready.

Greed, desire and Harry Potter at the White Temple

The tour begins at the White Temple (8am-5pm, admission 100 Baht) partly because it is Chiang Rai’s most popular attraction by far and partly because you need to get there early to avoid busloads of tourists who might spoil your photo shoot.

The site is the brainchild of Thai National Artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, who in the late 1990s took over the dilapidated Wat Rong Khun in his home village, and began construction of what is now one of the most photographed temples on the planet.

Before entering the dazzling ubosot (ordination hall) with its countless protuberances bursting out in every direction, you have to pass between seas of supplicating hands reaching up from a dark recess in the ground. It’s a disturbing sight and a reminder by the artist of the dangers of greed and desire.

The walls inside the hall are covered with images from pop culture such as Superman, Harry Potter, Terminator and the World Trade Center attack on 9/11, which Kositpipat hopes will remind visitors of the eternal struggle between good and evil. Besides these moral lessons, the artist’s humorous side is evident in various features of the temple, such as a spot for a selfie with a Thai-style Iron Man sitting on a bench and carvings of ghoulish faces hanging in trees.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all though, are the Golden Toilets, where “sitting on the throne” acquires a new meaning. To Kositpipat, gold represents the body and the material world, while white represents the purity of a calm mind.

Shades of blue at the monochrome Wat Rong Suea Ten

From the White Temple, head north on Highway 1 and take the first left after crossing the Kok River, where you’ll find Wat Rong Suea Ten, better known as the Blue Temple (7am–8pm; admission free). If some elements of the design seem familiar, don’t be surprised, as its creator, Putha Kabkaew, was a student of Kositpipat. You’ll find no visions of hell or moral warnings here, just eye-catching statues of blue ascetics, blue warriors, blue nagas and a blue stupa too.

The interior of the main temple building is – you guessed it – blue too, apart from a gleaming white Buddha image. Wall murals are of more traditional Buddhist subjects than the pop art of the White Temple, though they are executed in a modern style. After the morally challenging White Temple, the Blue Temple leaves many visitors sighing with pleasure, as if gazing at a clear sky or emerging from an underwater world.

Black beauty at the Baan Dam Museum

By contrast, as its name suggests, the Black House is all about the darker side of life and promises to bring visitors bumping back down to Earth. Like Kositpipat, Thawan Duchanee, who passed away in 2014, was a renowned Thai National Artist, and the Baan Dam Museum (9am–5pm; admission 80 Baht), a few kilometres north of Chiang Rai’s city centre, was where he lived and worked for the last four decades of his life.

The huge compound contains about 40 buildings, though many visitors never get beyond the first – a huge teak hall that looks like a temple with its multi-tiered roof. Inside, an enormous crocodile skin is stretched along a wooden table and various other animal parts – skulls, skins, horns and skeletons – are on display, as well as a model of a golden bird carrying a portrait of the artist on its back.

The rest of the site contains a variety of smaller buildings in various shapes and sizes, and the focus on animal remains offers plenty of reasons to reflect on mortality.

Views and towering statues at Wat Huay Pla Kang

Wat Huay Pla Kang (7am–9:30pm; admission free, lift 40 Baht), perched on a hilltop to the northwest of the city centre, is visible from kilometres around due to the 69-metre tall statue of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. The statue is often mistaken for a Buddha image, so the temple is frequently called “the Big Buddha temple”.

You can take a lift up the 25 floors of the Guan Yin statue to enjoy spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. Other structures include a gorgeous, Chinese-style, nine-storey pagoda, which you can also climb, and a white assembly hall that will remind you of the White Temple.

The temple is famous for its social welfare programme and takes care of over 500 orphans, some of whom you may spot running around the site or helping out in the kitchens.

A blast from the past at Wat Klang Wiang

The last shrine on this tour is also the oldest. Wat Klang Wiang (8am–5pm; admission free) was originally built in 1432, and these days it is one of the city’s most ornate structures with several unique features.

These include a shrine for Chiang Rai’s city pillar, an elevated scripture library and life-size models of people planting rice. An elegant stupa, surrounded by bejewelled elephant statues, contains niches occupied by golden Buddha images. The entire complex is a riot of colour and makes for great photos.

Since the tour ends in the city centre, you’ll have plenty of options to rest and refuel in nearby restaurants and cafés, go shopping on the city’s Saturday evening Walking Street on Thanalai Road or take a look at Chiang Rai’s clock tower, where the unmistakeable style of Chalermchai Kositpipat is evident in the wild design. There’s even a brief sound and light show at 7, 8 and 9pm.

Ready to explore the beautiful shrines of Chiang Rai? Fly there with Thai Airways.