Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai
A forest temple on the Monk's Trail, where pilgrims once stopped by a stream. What to see, and how to get there, on foot or by road.
Before the road was built in 1935, pilgrims climbed Doi Suthep on foot to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, the great temple higher up the mountain, which holds a relic of the Buddha. On the way they stopped here, where a stream slides over a broad slab of rock. Wat Pha Lat is that halt: a well, a shrine by the water, a hall, and a chedi, the solid bell-shaped monument that Thai temples usually raise over relics.1,2
The moss makes it all look older than it is: almost everything standing here is less than 150 years old, and the shrine by the water was rebuilt in 2019. What is old is the stop itself. Today it is a working meditation temple, free to enter.
Our take: Come for the forest and the water as much as for the temple, and on foot if you can: the Monk's Trail brings you in from below, by the stream, after less than an hour's walk. By road you see exactly the same temple. Allow an hour on site.
The road reaches the temple from above; the Monk's Trail, a forest path, from below, by the stream. That choice shapes the visit more than anything else.
| By road | On foot to Wat Pha Lat | On to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting there | From the old city, about 20 min by road (about 10 km), longer in traffic | From the old city, about 10 min by road to the trailhead, then 30–50 min on foot, by walkers' accounts | From Wat Pha Lat, another 60–90 min on foot, by walkers' accounts |
| At Wat Pha Lat | About an hour | About an hour | About an hour, before carrying on |
| Climb | None, apart from steps on site | About 170 m, moderate | About 450 m more, steep |
| Cost | Free | 100 baht per foreign adult (park fee) | No second park fee reported; then Wat Phra That Doi Suthep's own ticket |
| Best for | Short on time, young children, rainy days | Walkers in closed shoes | Fit walkers, early in the day |
Scooter, car, Grab (the ride-hailing app) or red truck to the car park beside the temple. Easy to combine with Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, about 6 km further up the same road.
The Monk's Trail from the edge of the city, in forest all the way. You arrive below the temple, by the stream, rather than through the car park.
Beyond Wat Pha Lat the path carries on to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. A real climb, worth it if you want to arrive there on foot.
170 m
Climb from the trailhead to the temple
About 1.4 km of forest path; walkers report 30 to 50 minutes.
450 m
Climb from the temple to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep
About 1.5 km of steep path, then 450 m of road to the foot of its great stairway; walkers report 60 to 90 minutes.
300 m
Above the old city
The temple stands at about 600 to 610 m, the old city at about 310 m.
Two starting points, two different places
At the bottom of a short side road off the mountain road (Route 1004), about 4.5 km above Chiang Mai Zoo.
GPS 18.79934, 98.93393
At the far end of Suthep Road, behind Chiang Mai University, near the old Channel 7 television station; the national park booth stands just before it. It lies 1.4 km of trail below the temple, not at the car park.
GPS 18.79767, 98.94217
Positions from OpenStreetMap, checked on 26 October 2026; for the trailhead, two hiking websites give positions within 40 m of it.17
Wat Pha Lat
Free
A sign in the grounds says so in Thai and English, and invites voluntary donations, by QR code too (25 October 2026).
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep
Its own ticket for foreigners
Paid at the top, on top of the park fee if you walked up: 30 baht as reported in 2026; we found no official price list.
A stop for pilgrims, slowly emptied once the road was built, then a monastery again.
Pha Lat, where a stream crosses a broad slab of bare rock, was where pilgrims walking up from the city rested. A poem of uncertain date, in Lanna, the old language and culture of northern Thailand, calls it a resting monastery beside the path to the relic, with a chedi, a pavilion and a hall.1,2
The road made the footpath redundant, and the temple slowly emptied. Most of what stands here today dates from the road years or later, and some of it was rebuilt much later.
Pha means a rock face, lat a slope: the monastery of the sloping rock, presumably after the slab the stream runs over below the temple. A local story offers another origin, from a northern Thai word for slipping; it is a folk etymology.
The temple has a second name, Sakithakami (the spelling varies), the Thai form of the Pali sakadagami, the 'once-returner': the second of the four stages on the path to awakening. Temples along the way up carry the names of these stages, a symbolic climb that ends at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. One source credits the idea to Kruba Srivichai, the monk who led the building of the road; another says the names appeared after his time.2,4,5
According to its legend, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep was founded where a white elephant carrying a relic of the Buddha stopped and died, in the reign of King Kue Na, in the late fourteenth century. Wat Pha Lat's own tradition says the elephant rested here on the way up; the chronicle passage quoted by the Ministry of Tourism's directory names other stops. Nothing from that period has been identified at Pha Lat; an official of the Fine Arts Department, Thailand's national heritage agency, said in 2020 that there is no evidence of when the temple was built.2,3
Many websites give 1355 as the founding date, without citing a document. It is the first year of Kue Na's reign, and the relic, by the legend's own account, came later in his reign. The temple's own account, relayed by the Thai press, puts the founding a few years after Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, in the 1370s or 1380s, with figures that do not agree. No early text confirms either date.7,11
Dates
before 1898
Documented.The shrine by the water
A photograph from Prince Damrong's tour of 1898 already shows the white shrine and its arches, in a Burmese colonial style.1
1926
Documented.A royal halt
On 1 February, King Prajadhipok and Queen Rambai Barni rest here on their way down from Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.2
1934–1935
1930s–1940s
1962–1999
Documented.Abandoned, then lived in again
In 1962 the meditation teacher Luang Por Sawat Sukkamo practises here; the temple then passes into the care of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep and, with no resident monks, is classed as an abandoned temple. An official notice of 2 March 1991 lifts that classification, and monks take up residence around 1999.1,2
2001–2022
Single source, or sources that differ.The chedi restored
According to one study, the Fine Arts Department lists the shrine, the well, the wihan and the chedi as monuments in 2001 and begins restoring the chedi; the new finial is raised in 2022.5
2019
Documented.The shrine rebuilt
Fallen after decades of neglect, the shrine is rebuilt from the 1898 photograph by the Fine Arts Department's Chiang Mai office.3
2024
Documented.Flash flood
On 27 September the stream rises suddenly and damages the bridge and the shrine.8
There is no set route through Wat Pha Lat. From the road you go down to the chedi and the wihan, then down again to the stream; the trail brings you in below, by the water.
The chedi stands on a stepped square base, its terraces covered in moss and small plants, with a niche on its front. It looks like a ruin left to the forest; it is in fact a restored monument, as the dates above show.
Look closer: the chedi, from top to bottom
Below the wihan the stream drops over a slab of grey rock, probably the sloping rock of the temple's name, which the signs call the waterfall. On its bank stands the white shrine with five arches that most photographs show. It is not the main hall (that is the wihan above) but a Buddha shrine, the Hor Phra Chao (the 'house of the Buddha') by the waterfall: the one in the 1898 photograph, rebuilt in 2019. Look through the arches: seated Buddha images line the back wall.
Its style comes from Burma under British rule: round arches, pilasters and stucco garlands that owe more to colonial buildings than to Lanna temples. Burmese and Shan workers came to northern Thailand with the teak trade, and left buildings like this one in Chiang Mai.1,3
Wat Pha Lat is a meditation temple with resident monks. In January 2026, after photos of visitors striking yoga poses circulated online, it posted its rules in Thai and English, and warned that it could close to visitors if this went on.9
What the temple asks
Dress
Shoulders and knees covered, no swimwear
The same rule as in any temple, applied here to the rocks by the stream as well.
Statues, chedi, rocks
Do not climb on them
That includes the waterfall and the rocks around it.
Exercise
No yoga or exercise poses
The behaviour that prompted the notice.
Noise
Keep quiet
A sign at the temple asks the same, in Thai and English.
Drones
Not without permission
The temple is surrounded by Doi Suthep–Pui National Park, where flying a drone needs the park chief's permission; ask the temple as well.16
Checked in October 2026.
Temple
06:00 to 17:30
As posted at the temple on 25 October 2026. Most online listings agree; one directory gives 07:00 to 18:00. Hours can change: before a special trip, check the temple's Facebook page.
From Chiang Mai Zoo, at the foot of the mountain, follow the road towards Doi Suthep (Route 1004, also called Srivichai Road) for about 4.5 km, then turn down the short side road to the temple car park. On a scooter, climb at a steady pace.
Shared red trucks to Doi Suthep leave from near the zoo once they have about ten passengers; reports from 2026 put the fare at about 40 baht a person to the top. There is no set fare for a stop at Wat Pha Lat: agree on it before you get in.
Hiring a whole truck, or booking a Grab, costs more but leaves when you want. A truck's price is negotiated and a Grab's is set by the app; both vary with the time and the season. If you hire a truck, agree on the fare, and on the way back, before you set off.
After a walk to the temple, the simplest way back is the trail itself; take care on the descent when it is wet. From the temple car park you can also book a Grab, but signal on the mountain is patchy and you may wait; or flag a red truck coming down from Doi Suthep, which may stop if it has room. If you are on a schedule, arrange the return before you leave town.
Mornings are cooler and quieter. In the rainy season, roughly June to October, the stream is at its fullest but the trail and the rocks are slippery: after a storm, wait a day. In March and April, smoke from the burning season often hides the city.
Allow 45 minutes to an hour on site. There are steps everywhere and wet rock near the water; the temple is not wheelchair accessible. Free toilets near the car park.17
Three questions the sources leave open.
Does the Monk's Trail follow the pilgrims' path?
The old path certainly came through Pha Lat, and today's trail passes the same halt. Whether it follows the old line step by step is not documented: we found no study comparing the two, and its English name is modern.1
Who built the white shrine?
The architects who studied it think of Shan craftsmen; a Fine Arts Department official believes it was Burmese workers of a British logging company. Both readings fit the teak era; neither is documented.1,3
Who are the two crowned guardians?
Thammikarat, 'the righteous king', is a common title for virtuous Buddhist kings, which Thai sources also give King Kue Na, and the temple has a building named after him. The first figure may honour him; none of the sources we found says so, and the second name, Inthathirat, remains unexplained.7
The photographs and signs come from our visit on 25 October 2026. Distances and altitudes are our own measurements on OpenStreetMap and the SRTM terrain model, rounded. Fees, rules and history come from the sources below, consulted on 26 October 2026; where they disagree, the page says so. Numbers in the text refer to this list.
7 tours
Guided temple tours, from old city walks and Doi Suthep to full days beyond the walls.
