Wat Chiang Yeun

This guide to Wat Chiang Yeun in Chiang Mai opens with an old Lanna rule: no king could take the throne without first kneeling before the Buddha image Phra Suppanyu Chao, housed here. It follows the temple through Burmese occupation, its abandonment, and King Kawila's 1794 restoration, then back further to relics chronicles say were sealed inside its whitewashed, lion-guarded chedi. Look for the stone chinthe guarding each corner of the base as you walk around it.