Wat Changkhong

Wat Changkhong’s two-storey brick ordination hall stands on Loi Khrueng Road in Chang Khlan, a short ride from Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar. The Fine Arts Department has registered both the ordination hall and the chedi here as an ancient monument, recognising an architectural style that blends Chinese, Lanna, and Burmese craftsmanship rarely combined on a single Chiang Mai building.

The temple takes its name from the chang khong — gong-making craftsmen who migrated from Chiang Saen and settled here, building what was first called Wat Sri Phun To. Their trade shows in the decorative details: carved and fretworked wood panels, moulded stucco across the two-storey brick facade, and a scripture repository (ho trai) built in the same mixed idiom and raised on stilts in the traditional style used to keep manuscripts safe from insects and floodwater. Inside the ordination hall, the principal Buddha image sits in the Maravijaya posture — right hand touching the ground, calling the earth to witness — under a roofline of red clay tiles typical of Lanna temple design.

A large Bodhi tree anchors the compound, tended by the surrounding neighbourhood the way older Chiang Mai community temples usually are. This is a working local wat rather than a curated tourist stop, so expect a modest, lived-in feel instead of gift shops or entry queues. Weekday mornings are quietest; the temple sits close enough to the Night Bazaar that an evening visit can bookend a walk through the market stalls.

Wat Changkhong is free to enter, with no fixed visiting hours beyond normal daylight temple etiquette. It’s an easy walk from the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar or a short songthaew ride from the old city, and close enough to Wat Buppharam — another Chang Khlan temple with its own distinct history — to combine both in one outing.

Insider Tip: Look up at the ho trai’s roofline rather than just the main hall — the stilted scripture library is the clearest single example of the temple’s three-way architectural mix, and it’s easy to walk past without noticing it.