Wat Phra That Hariphunchai

Lamphun was Hariphunchai, a Mon kingdom whose walls and moat still shape the town centre, and it was old before Chiang Mai was founded. Its principal temple sits behind a river-facing gate on the main street: a walled compound with a golden chedi roughly forty-six metres high at its centre, ringed by a low fence of gilded posts and umbrellas at the corners. Around it stand a stepped pyramidal chedi in Mon style, a large open wihan, a library on a raised base and a bronze bell of some size. The compound is busy with local worshippers rather than tour groups, and the town outside it is small enough to walk in an hour.

What you actually see

• The golden chedi - the gilded central stupa with its corner umbrellas.
• The stepped chedi - a squarer Mon-style tower in the same compound.
• The wihan and library - the open assembly hall and the raised scripture house.
• The old moat - the earthworks and water still ringing the town centre.

When to go

November to February is dry and cool, and Lamphun is an easy half-day from Chiang Mai on the old road under its avenue of rubber trees. Mornings are better for light on the gold. In August the town holds a longan festival, when the surrounding orchards are in fruit and traffic into town thickens noticeably.

Honest expectations

It is one compound, and forty minutes covers it unless you are unusually patient with detail. Foreigners pay an entry fee that locals do not. Lamphun has little else beyond a second Mon-era temple and a small museum, so pair it with something. The main street outside the gate is loud with traffic and parked coaches.

Nearby

Wat Chamadevi with its stepped Mon chedi, and Chiang Mai half an hour north.