Tickets
Hotels
Tours
Insurance
Trains
ThailandDescription and is it worth a visit
Thaton Temple (Wat Tha Ton) is another little–known "tourist diamond" of the north of Thailand. In general, its original name is Phra Aram Luang, but the people have fixed a simpler Taton by the name of the town next to which it is located.
This unexpectedly large and beautiful temple and monastery is located far from popular tourist destinations and major cities far in the north of the province, just three kilometers from the border with Myanmar. In such a sparsely populated and remote place, you absolutely do not expect to see such a large-scale place, and this only makes it more intriguing.
The temple is located on a mountain and consists of several platforms on nine levels. All levels are connected by an asphalt road, which eventually leads you to the top with a large statue of the golden standing Buddha and an observation deck with views of the Taton and the valley of the Kok River. It is noteworthy that at the lowest level there is a temple with features of Chinese temple architecture and a statue of the goddess Guanyin. Ie, architecture and traditions of several branches of Buddhism are intertwined in this temple: Thai, Chinese and Burmese.
But the most interesting place is not at the very top, but at the penultimate eighth level. It is a large and beautiful pavilion, resembling a pagoda in shape. You can go inside it and climb the spiral staircase-ramp in the form of a dragon to the very top, where some very important shrine is kept in a glass sarcophagus. What is stored there, we could not find out, but judging by the scale, we can assume that this is a piece of the Buddha. Unfortunately, we could not find out what kind of particle it is. Inside this pavilion there are many more statues of Buddha and saints, photographs and documents, some relics. In general, this is a whole museum, but, unfortunately, it is impossible to find out at least some information about these conditional exhibits, since there is little information, and what is available is only in Thai. On the fourth level there is a meditation center, where for donations you can take meditation courses and even become a temporary novice of the temple, but this is another story, and it has nothing to do with travel and tourism.
🕐 Working hours
From 08:00 to 17:00.
💵Entrance fee / ticket price
Free of charge.
🚶 How to get there
Thaton Temple is located in the town of Thaton, 180 kilometers from Chiang Mai and 80 kilometers from Chiang Rai on highway route 107 (temple on the map). Buses and minibuses run here from Chang Phuak bus station in Chiang Mai and from the main bus station in the center of Chiang Rai. They depart in the afternoon from 5 to 17 o'clock every hour (check on the spot, the schedule may change), on the way from Chingmai more than 3 hours, from Chiang Rai 2 hours. You can visit Wat Thaton during the day from both Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, but ideally we recommend doing this route for 2-3 days with overnight stays in Thaton, Fang or Chiang Dao, because there is something to see here. A particularly exciting option is to come here from Chiang Mai via Chiang Tao, and then get to Chiang Rai not by road but by the Kok River.
If you spend the night at a hotel in Taton, you can walk the route through all levels to the top of the mountain on foot, the entrance to the trail and stairs is located next to the bridge over the Kok River. You will have to overcome more than 250 meters vertically, which is quite a lot. Therefore, if you are in Tatona by rented transport, you can get there. The road to the top is very steep, but you can drive any car and motorcycle, asphalt everywhere. There are parking spaces on each level.
Friends, we remind you that it is much more interesting to get acquainted with the sights of Thailand with the help of excursions, and therefore we advise you to look at options with online booking and reviews on these excursion aggregators: