N 119. A day trip to Lamphun and Lampang

 N 119. A day trip to Lamphun and Lampang

I have been wanting to visit Lamphun and Lampang while we are in Cheingmai. There are some places around Cheingmai which we can visit as a day trip. Lamphun and Lampang is one of them as Lamphun is 19 km and Lampang is 101 km from Cheingmai.

 My attempt to visit Lamphun and Lampang became a reality in a day in October. I made arrangements to go with USTM and daughter Nge with Nge driving. We also took Sai Lat who is a family friend with us.We collected him at Wat Pa Pao and set off directly for the highway heading towards Lamphun.

 I had looked for Lamphun in the net and found many places of interesting to visit but because Lampang is the main place to visit for today and as we still have a long way to go I told SL that we will visit only one place here, the most famous temple, Wat Phrathat Haripunchai.

 Sai Lat who is a history enthusiast and has a good memory told us that Lamphun was founded by Queen Chama Thevi as the capital of Haripunchai Kingdom, the last and most northerly Mon Kingdom.The Wat Phrathat Haripunchai was founded pin 897 and a Buddha’s relic(hair ) is said to be enshrined in the Chedi.

 We found the temple as magnificent as all temples in Thailand. The Buddha statue in the main hall is glittering with gold and every piece of the hall is gilded beautifully .The golden chedi is 46 meters tall now and there is an ancient style brick arch with fine designs with a pair of sculptured lions at the entrance. There also is a square shape chedi and a Khmer style Buddha statue.We didn’t stay long but left this centre of worship to continue our journey to Lampang.