Wat Pa Mai Daeng

Wat Pa Mai Daeng — formally Wat Phra Chao Phrom Maharaj — sits in Ban Pa Mai Daeng, Chai Prakan district at the northern end of the Fang valley in Chiang Mai province. Local tradition places the original temple here around a thousand years ago, in the era of Phra Chao Phrom Maharaj, the semi-legendary king credited with founding the old walled town of Wiang Chai Prakan. The site was later abandoned and swallowed by a red-wood forest, giving the temple its everyday name: pa mai daeng, “red forest.”

Villagers from Ban Pa Mai Daeng and nearby communities cleared and rebuilt the site from 1972, led by Phra Kru Pradit Phromkhun, known locally as Luang Pho Boon Yen Thanadhammo. The temple gained official recognition as an active monastery in October 1990, with its first appointed abbot serving from 1991. The rebuilt complex is in Lanna style throughout: the ordination hall and chedi carry the region’s characteristic tiered roofs and gable carving, and a shrine holds a gilded effigy of Phra Chao Phrom Maharaj himself, the focus of merit-making on temple festival days. A separate wooden pavilion, Viharn Dhammanussati, was built in 1998 to hold the gold-leaf-covered remains of Luang Pho Boon Yen — visitors view them reflected in a mirror set into the structure rather than directly.

Insider Tip: Arrange your visit through a Fang or Chai Prakan guide, or ask your guesthouse to call ahead. A resident monk showing you the Phra Chao Phrom Maharaj shrine and the Dhammanussati pavilion is a different, better experience than wandering the grounds alone.

Watch out: This is not a drop-in tourist stop. Turning up unannounced outside a festival day may mean the halls with the shrine and relics are closed, even though the outer grounds are accessible.

The temple is reached from Fang or Chai Prakan town by car or motorbike; there’s no scheduled songthaew route directly to the gate. Cover shoulders and knees, and remove your shoes before entering any hall. Pair the visit with two other Fang-valley sites: Fang Hot Springs inside Doi Pha Hom Pok National Park, and the First Royal Factory at Fang Museum, which tells the story of the royal project that ended opium farming in this same valley.