Wat Umong (Suan Buddha Dhamma)

 temple, ancient, buddhist temple, buddhist monastery

Wat Umong (Suan Buddha Dhamma) TH วัดอุโมงค์ (สวนพุทธธรรม)

Wat Umong (Suan Phutthatham), วัดอุโมงค์ (สวนพุทธธรรม), is located in Tambon Suthep, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. The temple is also designated as Wat Umong Suan Phutthatham and Wat Umong (Suan Buddha Dhamma)--fully translates to Wat Umong (Buddha Dhamma Garden or Park) and is considered to be a Forest Temple.

The History of Wat Umong (Suan Phutthatham)

This temple was originally called Wat Werukatthanaram, which means"Temple of the Eleven Clumps of Bamboo". The old document records that after the founding of Chiang Mai around 1297 A.D. (B.E. 1840), Phaya Mangrai built this temple in an area that had eleven clumps of bamboo for Phra Thera Chan and Singhol (Lanka) monks to reside therein. Later on, a tunnel ("U-Mong" in Thai) was constructed by the command of Phaya Kuena. Since then, the temple was named Wat U-Mong Thera Chan or simply Wat U-Mong.
In the past, this temple was regarded as an Aranyawasi (forest) temple, for it was located in the western jungle zone of Wiang Suan Dok, or in the area outside Chiang Mai City. This temple has a round bell-style Chedi situated on a short circular base (this style Chedi resembles Sapata Chedi in Pakan from the 12th cnetury A.D.) On the wall of the cellar beneath the base of the Chedi are decorations of mural paintings of the Ex-Buddha images sitting in rows of niches.
This principal Chedi of the temple is situated on an open court of the mound and in the seige of a boundary wall. The Chedi has a Naga staircase built on the south side. On the east side of the Chedi is an open wide roof of the tunnel. Situated on the lower mound, the tunnel doorway is facing towards the south. The tunnel which houses Buddha images has a wall decorated with mural paintings of trees, flowers and birds. The wide court in the front of the tunnel which contains pavilions, monk's residences, a stone pillar with a lion sculpture on its top and an old base for a Vihaia surrounded by a boundary wall with its main gate lying on the south side. In addition, on the west, another gate is open to the Naga Staircase of the Chedi.
Identified from historic documents, architectural style and mural paintings, this temple is assumed to have been built in the 15th - 16th centuries A.D. Later in 1947, Chao Chuen Sirorot built a Dhamma garden in the temple and invited Phra Dhamma Kosajarn (Panya Nantha Pikkhu) to come to serve as abbot of the temple. U-Mong temple is one of the significant monasteries of Chiang Mai.