Wat Phra Yuen

About

Wat Phra Yuen rises along the east bank of the Kuang River in Wiang Yong Subdistrict, Mueang Lamphun District. It is one of the four corner temples — the wat si mum mueang — founded by Queen Chamadevi, first ruler of the kingdom of Hariphunchai.

Tradition places the founding around 670 CE, seven years after the queen's enthronement; the temple was first known as Araññikarama. Its present name comes from the principal standing Buddha (phra yuen), a nine-metre bronze image cast in 1063 CE during the reign of King Thammikarat, the thirty-second ruler of Hariphunchai. It was originally enshrined within the stupa behind the vihara, when the wat was known as Wat Phuttharam.

In 1369 CE, King Kue Na of Lanna commissioned three additional standing Buddhas. The Tamnan Mulasasana chronicle relates that he invited the Sukhothai monk Phra Sumanthera to Chiang Mai, where the monk stayed at Wat Phra Yuen. A restoration in 1904 enclosed all four standing Buddhas within a single new stupa.

The stupa is shaped in the Bagan style, recalling the form of Burma's Thatbyinnyu temple. It rises on a tiered platform with stairs leading to an upper circumambulatory terrace ringed by a kampaeng kaeo. Small satellite stupas mark the four corners, and the square central body holds niches with standing Buddha images on each side. Inside the vihara, an ancient principal Buddha image — contemporary with the original founding — is surrounded by murals depicting the Buddha's life.

History

Tradition records the founding of the wat around 670 CE under Queen Chamadevi, the first ruler of Hariphunchai, as one of four corner temples consecrating the boundaries of her kingdom. The present-day name dates from the casting of the nine-metre bronze standing Buddha in 1063 CE during the reign of King Thammikarat.

King Kue Na of Lanna commissioned three additional standing Buddha images in 1369. A major restoration in 1904 under Phra Khru Sinwilat (Khru Ba Wong) and the ruler Chao Inthayongyos rebuilt the central stupa to enclose all four standing Buddhas. The Fine Arts Department registered the stupa as a national monument in 1928, and restorations in 2005–2006 uncovered ancient brick foundations, a Sukhothai-style stupa base, and a Hariphunchai-style Buddha head dating from the twelfth or thirteenth century.