Wat Chedi Luang

The massive, ruined brick spire of Wat Chedi Luang dominates the intersection. It stands as a hulking square base that once held the Emerald Buddha before an earthquake toppled its upper tiers in fifteen forty-five. King Saen Mueang Ma began this structure in the late fourteenth century to house his father’s ashes, and for years it remained the tallest building in the Lanna Kingdom. The rough, weathered brickwork still shows the scars of that collapse, leaving the temple open to the sky.