Thursday, January 10, 2019
Inside Suan Prung Gate

After yoga this morning, Tom and Julie were off to a tok sen session. I returned to 3-Sis, cleaned up, and being time for a trim, decided to go in search of the barber that Tom liked so well. He described it as being in a soi (a small lane, larger than an alley) south of the 7-Eleven that is across the street and south of the soi on which Amrita Garden (a vegan restaurant) is located. He also said that the mirror is situated so that when your hair is getting cut, you see in the mirror out through a picture window behind you. It is a hot day, and a decent-length walk, so I got a tuk-tuk to take me to Suan Prung gate.

Suan Prung Gate

When Chiang Mai and the the wall was originally built in the late 13th and early 14th century, there were four gates, one on each 1600-meter side of the square wall. I found the following in my searching the internet for information about Suan Prung Gate:

About 100 years after King Mengrai had completed the walls and gates around Chiang Mai, King Saen Muang Ma added a fifth gate. His wife, Phra Rajathevee didn’t want to live inside the city so she had a palace built in the Suan Ra district; an area outside of the southwest corner of the city. Phra Rajathevee used the “Suan Ra” gate almost daily to go to oversee the construction of Chedi Luang. Later in its history, because of a change in the use of the land immediately around the gate, the name was changed from “Suan Ra” to its present name of “Suan Prung”.

There was, and supposedly still is, a tradition in Chiang Mai of carrying cadavers out of the city for cremation through this gate. Many Thai people do not use this gate, saying that there are bad spirits there. Oddly, a well-used, large public park is just inside and to the west of Suan Prung Gate.

The tuk-tuk driver asked if he could drop me outside the gate, and understanding that he might not want to go through the gate because of the bad spirits, I agreed. I did not get a good picture of the gate this day, be here is what it looks like from my vantage point:

It looks much like the other gates, all of which were restored a few times in the late 1800s up through the 1960s.

Wat Puak Hong

Just inside Suan Prung Gate, and coincidentally south of the 7-Eleven which is across Samlan Road from the soi at which Amrita Gardens is located, is a soi leading to a very old, and seldom visited local temple, Wat Puak Hong, the Temple of Swans, sometimes spelled Wat Phuak Hong. This is one of many what I call “local” or “neighborhood” temples – small and seldom visited by tourists, and used by the people who live in the neighborhood. In the old city (inside the 1600-meter square wall/moat) are at least 50 temples. Most of these are smaller local temples, and many of these are worth seeing.

Wat Puak Hong was built in the 16th or 17th century, and its foundation date is not known with certainty (or at least I could not find it). On the temple grounds are simply a viharn (worship hall), a chedi (pagoda), and a bell tower. The viharn has been closed every time I have walked by, and was closed today.

The entrance to the temple is guarded by a pair of Chinthe mythological lions, which is often an indicator of Burmese style temples. Although the roof looks very much Lanna-style to me.

The thewada (angelic beings that live in the heavenly realms) dancing on the yak on the main doors reminds me of the similar style doors at one of the viharn at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.

I love the detail and the artistry at so many temples. And the thewada – they have no gender, but can appear very male or female depending on the artist.

Chedi Si Puak Hong

Behind the viharn is a circular chedi named Chedi Si Puak Hong which was built during the 16th or 17th century. Its style differs from other chedi in North Thailand; “It was either influenced by Yunnanese architecture (southwestern China) or it is a circular version of the stepped Mon chedi of the Wat Ku Kut in Lamphun.”

(Some of these chedi remind me almost of a large layered wedding cake.)

Samlaan Barber

As I was walking in the soi to the temple, I saw the barber shop, and with the picture window, I highly suspected that this was that to which Tom referred.

It was, and after a short wait, I got a very good haircut – this barber is very precise, and meticulous. And popular, as my hair was getting cut, two more customers came to wait. My hair is a bit shorter than normal, and good for the hot weather (I’ll get picture soon).

Next: Wat Chiang Man, Wat Lok Molee, and the Northwest corner of the wall