Wat Pa Pao is a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. Situated at the north-east corner of the old city next to the moat, it was the first temple in Chiang Mai to be built for the Shan community.
History Wat Pa Pao, which takes its name from a grove of pao trees in which the temple was built ("pa" meaning "forest"), was established in 1883 and was the first temple built in Chiang Mai to serve the Shan community, many of whom had migrated from the Shan States in northeastern Burma to work in the teak logging industry, and were without a place to practice their form of Buddhist worship. It was founded by Inthawichayanon, the 7th ruler of Chiang Mai, and Mom Bualai, who was his Shan consort, together with members of the Shan community.
Description The temple is known for its distinctive chedi and two assembly halls built in the Burmese-Shan architectural style. The bell-shaped chedi, mounted on a triple-tiered square base, is surmounted by a golden spire and hti, and is decorated with four qilin, mythical creatures with a lion's body and a dragon's head, at each corner. In the courtyard is an assembly hall with a seven tier, Burmese style pyatthat roof rising over its eastern end surmounted by a hti. To the west of the chedi is another assembly hall constructed mostly of teak with a striking multi-tiered zeitawun wooden roof, highly decorated with friezes and dyed red, and depicting stylised scenes of Mount Meru. The temple has a Thai Ping style Buddha image dated 1487, while many of the temple's Buddha images have distinctive Shan or Burmese characteristics. Supamon Peerapornpisal counts a third element in that mixture. She records Western arches on the bell-shaped stupa and a wihan in which Mon and Burmese forms are combined, and notes that among the Chiang Mai temples she surveyed this one alone carries a pagoda-shaped roof. She places it among eleven sites in Chiang Mai and Lampang where Western features appear, and traces that influence to Burma and its timber merchants rather than to any colonial rule over Siam.
The temple is the site of the annual Poy Sang Long festival when boys are inducted as novice monks. Taking place in April and lasting for three days, it features a procession of Shan people in traditional clothing who parade through the city. Functioning as a community centre for the Shan community, the temple also provides schooling for children in the Shan dialect.
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