Wat Buppharam

Wat Buppharam was founded in 1497 by King Mueang Kaeo, built on the site of his great-grandfather King Tilokarat’s former palace on what is now Chiang Mai’s Tha Phae Road. Well over 500 years of rebuilds later, the compound mixes Lanna and Burmese architecture in a way few Chiang Mai temples do — and it has a Donald Duck statue eating noodles in the garden, which is exactly as odd in person as it sounds.

The Lanna-style ordination hall dates to 1819, teak-framed and decorated with carved eaves and glass mosaic work. A Burmese-style stupa, rebuilt in 1958, stands nearby — the pairing of a Lanna hall with a Burmese stupa is the detail that architecture-minded visitors come for. Inside one of the halls sits Phra Buddha Narit, a teak-wood Buddha image commonly cited as the largest of its kind in Thailand and several hundred years old. The two-storey Ho Monthian Tham, the Dhamma hall, is the largest single structure on the grounds, completed in 1996 and still in everyday use for teaching and ceremonies.

The temple sees a mix of foot traffic that most Tha Phae Road temples don’t: local families making merit, monks going about ordinary business, and a steady trickle of visitors drawn partly by the 2012 Chinese film Lost in Thailand, which used the grounds as a filming location and gave the temple a following among Chinese tourists that persists today.

Insider Tip: The Donald Duck statue is easy to miss if you only look at the main ordination hall — it’s tucked in the garden near the library building, so walk the full compound rather than just the front courtyard.

Morning, roughly 8:00 to 10:00, is the quietest window before tour groups and the midday heat arrive. The temple sits directly on Tha Phae Road, an easy walk from the Old City moat or a short songthaew ride from anywhere in central Chiang Mai. Dress modestly — covered shoulders and knees — and remove shoes before entering any building housing a Buddha image. Entry is free; a small donation toward upkeep is welcome. For more of the old city’s temple circuit, Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh are both a 15-20 minute walk further inside the moat, or a quick songthaew ride.