Wat Den Sali Sri Muang Kaen (Wat Ban Den)

This guide to Wat Ban Den, on a hilltop outside Chiang Mai, follows a young monk named Thueng Norruang, who took over a nearly abandoned countryside shrine in 1988 and by his thirty-ninth birthday had turned it into the golden, naga-guarded complex around you. It traces how devotees funded the build and how the temple later earned an official title, plus the twelve zodiac stupas built to represent each year of the Thai calendar. Look for the stupa matching your birth year as you walk the back of the complex.