Wat Doi buffalo hill

( the temple of the glass buffalo horn ) Why should you visit the temple?

Other names: Wat Phra That Doi Khao Kwai Kaew, Wat Doi Khao Kwai. The pagoda is revered by human beings and deities (gods, angels or celestial beings) to make merits that leads to nirvana or Path and Fruit of Nibbana. If you go to Wat Phra That Doi Khao Kwai You will find an albino buffalo statue next to the the pagoda. It is said that within the chedi contains Khao Kwai Kaew (the glass buffalo horn) and the Buddha's relics. The temple has viewpoint over the city, also known as Buffalo Horn Hill. In the suburb of Chiang Rai City, is on the opposite side of the old airport runway. On the corner and along the sides of the lake there are some famous restaurants with reasonable price, such as , Kung Ten Nhon Peung. According to folklore Phraya Thammamigaraj, the Ruler of Chiang Rai at that time; he built the temple of Wat Phra That Doi Khao Kwai by bringing the Buddha relics which is the left little finger of the Buddha. The monks Sangha has brought it to propagate or spread Buddhism in the Lanna land. Therefore he invited the Buddha's relics to be contained in the pagoda for the Buddhists to worship. It was later restored several times during the Chiang Saen period over a thousand years ago and in the reign of King Meng Rai the Great. Nowadays, every year there is a tradition to bathe the relics. On the full moon day of the 8th lunar month, Duen Peng, which corresponds to the full moon day of Visakha Bucha.(It is an important day for Buddhists, marking the birth, enlightenment and death of the Lord Buddha. It falls on the full moon of the normally in May.) Legend of Khao Saeng albino buffalo

(“Saeng” means bright or glowing like glass Khao = horn, Kaew = glass) The legend of the Khao Kwai Kaew Buffalo originates the name of the hill “Doi Khao Kwai Kaew”. There are many stories that have been passed on about Khao Kwai Kaew buffalo or the a glass horned buffalo. It is said that a glass buffalo horn was found, a baby buffalo belonging to a holy monk Bodhisattva used to graze and live in this area. Or else there is another story that a baby buffalo was sent from heaven. It is white and has a beautiful shape. Before it died, the buffalo's horns had grown considerably. Later, a farmer found a buffalo's skull buried, he polished it and found that it was made of glass. It brought him luck, this farmer later became a wealthy man. Legend of the Monster “Mang SeeHooHaaTaa” (Animal with 4 ears and five eyes) The mascot or the symbol that was used in the last “National Youth Games” or the Chiangrai games come from this strange animal not an insect. Behind the mascot is important. What’s important in the name? It tells us history and origin of the town or community. To the west of the community “ DoiPhraBaat” or “the hill of The Bhudda Foot Printing” near the old airport runway. To the west of this community is in Doi KhaoKwai village ( The village of the Buffalo horn or Buffalo

Horn Hill.) where the temple of Doi KhaoKwai” located on the top of the hill. .Closed to the hill is the beautiful lake called Nhong Peung. There are some famous interesting places. On the corner of the lake on the other side, there two famous restaurants. One is known for the local Northern Thai food that focuses on fish dishes/menu, such as Larb, Gaeng-OM curry, spicy soup etc, The other one for the drunkards. Also there is a bike track around the lake for tourists to do the bike riding. And if you want to get relaxed, you can fish there under the trees’ shade. According to the legend of the temple Wat Doi Khao Kwai, around one thousand year ago There was a king named Prayatammigaraja who reigned the town Chiangrai at that time. He built the temple with the pagoda containing the little finger of the Buddha’s left hand, brought there by the clergy ( a group of monks) who propagandized the sermons in the land of Lanna (the Northern part of Thailand). They gave the relic to the king Prayatammigaraja and invited him to put it into the pagoda of the temple for the laymen to respect and worship. Later on the temple and the pagoda were reformed many times at the age of ChiangSaen and also at the age of King Mengrai the Great. At present people celebrate the festival of relic watering on the full moon of Visakhabuchaa day every year. The legend of the Monster with 4 ears - 5 eyes says that once upon a time around one thousand years ago, there was a town called ”Nakorn Puntumati” whose king named Prayatammigaraja who peacefully reigned the town Chiangrai at that time. He had 7 wives. In this town, there was a poor family with 3 members : father, mother and a son. They live from tooth to nails by making a living on begging for food. The son’s name was Mr. Tookhata( derived not from

Japanese name but from the Pali that means “Suffering & Poor” ).When he was at 4 years, his mother suddenly passed away or died. He found his living existence difficult because he met both the generous or gold heart people and the narrow-minded or selfish people who disgusted him. Some people were willing to share offerings or things given while some of them chased him away. When he reached 12 years old, his father became ill and so he was told by his father to feed the cattle or a herd of buffaloes and cows for the village headman. A few years later, his father was seriously ill and supposed to die/survive unavoidably. Before his father died, he was educated and given sermons to be moral, obedient to the elderly people. He was also made promise to bury his father’s corpse or dead body at the forestry graveyard until his father’s skull or head bone slipped/separated from the body trunk and then taken home to worship on the altar. After that when Tookhata was at the age of 17 years old, Tookhata drag or pull the skull uphill westwards. If the skull got stuck to any points of the bumpy stump, he must get the skull buried there. Finally his father assigned him to make a noose trap to catch animals as sacrificed offerings to the soul. If any kind of animals got trapped, make it docile and made it a pet and feed it at home. After his father died, Tookhata followed the promise and did every thing his father said to him. One day he came to see his father’s corpse and noticed that the head slipped away, so he remembered the last words of his father. When he found the auspicious time he dragged his father skull up the hill until he tripped over a stump in front of a cave. He so decided to make a trap to catch animals there. After a few days, he came to check his trap. And he found a strange animal trapped. It has some special features, that is, it is short and fat, has black body skin with long skin hair, and with 4 ears and five eyes. It somehow looks

like a bear Khor or Mhemhaa. This is the origin where its name derives/comes from. That’s why people called it “Mang SeeHooHaaTaa” Seeing this strange Monster in the trap, Tookhata realized that this strange animal must have been his father reincarnation or rebirth into this animal. So, he did Wai or showed respect to the celestial beings, vowed and prayed to them that he would keep and look after it the best so far as he could. After that he hid the Monster at home and kept feeding it but it never ate any food and water he gave. He was too busy for him to take care of it closely because he had to feed the cattle all the time. Until one day in winter time when Tookhata got home, he lit the wood to make fire to warm the cattle in the stable and to chase mosquitoes away for them. The wood was burnt down into charcoals. One of them burst and bounced away onto the place where the Monster stayed. With surprise and with extreme hunger, it ate the hot red charcoal there. Tookhata was filled with surprised, too. He added up more wood in to fire to make charcoals and continued giving charcoals as food to the Monster. On the next day, It excreted as plenty of gold. With this idea, he made fire everyday brought, and incessantly gave the hot red charcoals as food for the Monster. And so it excreted plenty of gold every day. Tookhata was aware of thiefs or burglars so he dug the ground in his garden to bury the gold to hide it until the land was full of god underneath Later on the news of the King’s princess daughter’s beauty “ PhraNangSeeMaa” got into the ears of many towns’ princes. They wanted to marry her so they came and begged King Prayatammigaraja( or PrayaPuntumati) for marriage. the King set up a condition and decided that whoever could built the golden bamboo gutters from their houses to his palace could marry his daughter. Listening to his words, they were disappointed , felt sad or down because they knew that it

was an impossible dream to find a large amount of gold to create such a wonderful architecture. This news gradually disappeared. After hearing the news, Tookhata hired a plumber to help him with the project. After that, people saw the beautiful golden bamboo gutters installed along the streets long far away endlessly. When the king heard this news, he told his servants and delegates(counsellers) to follow or search for the source of the golden bamboo gutters. He found that the golden bamboo gutters came from Tookhata’s house. So the king told his servants to built a new good street to Tookhata’s house. Finally on an auspicious day, the king told his servants to dress Tookhata up with beautiful clothes and organized or held the wedding party for Tookhata and his daughter. After getting married and being the royal son-in-law, the king suspected that how could Tookhata his son-in-law just a poor man but having a lot of gold. He asked him” Where did you get the goldfrom?” Tookhata answered,” the Monster MangSeeHoo HaTaa gave it to me.” With greed or selfishness, the king commanded his servants to dig up Tookhata’s garden land. It took 7 day and 7 nights to get it all. Now the gold belonged to the king and he didn’t feel enough and still wanted to catch the Monster MangSeeHoo HaTaa which was the gold source so he told Tookhata that he wanted to see it and told Tookhata to take it there. When the Monster first saw the king it had a hunch or basic instincts of survival that it would be killed by someone so it escaped from the cage and ran away. He commanded his servants to catch alive 2 times and it can flee away. But for the third time, it was caught and put firmly in the cage. One day the king Prayatammigaraja wanted to touch the body of the Monster MangSeeHoo HaTaa . Whe he opened the cage, it suddenly flee away from the cage and the king chased after it up the hill until he reached the front of the cave. He thought it must have into either side

of the cave. So he got into the cave on the wrong side ( the other side).There he met a couple who were feeding their white buffaloes with glass horn which is the origin of the DoiKhaoKwai village’s name. Accidentally the land slid and blocked the entry or the mouth of the cave. He got trapped in the cave. His servants who followed him didn’t find him. They thought he would die of the magic of the Monster. So they had a return(revenge) cure ceremony to make the cave open. So they invited all the 7 wives of the king to come over the cave front. The witch doctor told each king’s wives to open her Phaa-Sin ( Lanna Skirt) starting from the major wife. They kept arguing with each other and nobody dare open her skirt to show the female genital organ in Thai called “Hee+” except for the last wife or the 7th wife. She decided to devote her rudeness and embarrassment in public to her beloved husband who was going to die. Suddenly there was a mysterious laugh from the cave and the cave opened. The king ran out of the cave and got rescued and safe. The king said from now on he would love the minor wives more than the major wife. The moral of this story: “Greed is destructive or destroys everything.”

Contact : 087-1846850 Visiting hours : every day GPS Map : 19.881032,99.809771 Address : Wat Phra That Doi Khao Kwai, 101 San Khong Luang Road Soi 9, Tambon Rob Wiang, Amphoe Mueang Chiang Rai, Chiang Rai 57000 Travelling: - Traveling by private car / From the airport road in the area of Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital, turn into Kong Chang Road and enter Doi Khao Kwai Road. You will see a sign going up to Wat Phra That Doi Khao Kwai. It's a route up the hill shortly to the temple. If you take the Thanalai street, go southward. It’s about 3 kilometers from Chiang Rai city-center along Ratchayotha Road, then turn left into Soi Nong Pung 1, go up the mountain for about 2 kilometers. The temple is about 10-minutes drive/ ride from the city-centre. Main streets to the community Doi Phra baatare part of the Chiangrai regional hospital – to the old airport runway, so they are narrow and narrower when getting into my hometown where there’s a buffalo statue at the crossroad of my village. So, if you have time to visit there on holidays or on the weekends, I suggest you to go there. And you won’t be disappointed. https://chiangrai.mots.go.th/news_view.php?nid=428 http://www.zthailand.com/place/wat-phra-that-doi-khao-kwai- chiang-rai/ 053713014 [email protected] https://www.tupcr.ac.th/?cat=2