A Burmese prince under five melonsWat Ku Tao
วัดกู่เต้า
A Burmese prince under five melons
Tharrawaddy Min, son of Bayinnaung, who ruled Lanna 1578–1607 — his ashes in the chedi
FredTC · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
- Where
- North of the moat, behind the stadium, Chang Phueak · 18.80261, 98.98865 from OpenStreetMap
- Open
- Daylight
- Cost
- Free
- Who is dead
- Tharrawaddy Min, son of Bayinnaung, who ruled Lanna 1578–1607 — his ashes in the chedi
- On
- By bicycle, On a scooter
The chedi is five spheres stacked smallest on top, which in northern Thai reads as a pile of melons: ku tao. The five stand for five Buddhas, four past and one to come.
Inside are the ashes of the Burmese prince who governed Chiang Mai for thirty years. The wat is Shan and the Shan community still keeps it — Poi Sang Long is held here.
Almost nobody comes. It is ten minutes' ride from Chang Phueak Gate.
Tharrawaddy Min governed this city for thirty years and his ashes are in the melon chedi, in a Shan wat, in a Thai town, and Burma is where he was from. The northern category for a dead person nobody at home can feed is the hungry one. The Shan community has kept this wat and its rites going round him for four hundred years, which is one way of answering the problem.
The kind of dead this kind of place holds, in northern reckoning
Where this is arguedSources disagree on whose ashes: Tharrawaddy Min, Nawrahta Minsaw, or a 'Prince Saravadi'. Dates for the chedi run from 1613 to 1631.
Making merit here
A tray, dedicated to a foreign dead person buried far from home. The Shan community will know exactly what you are doing.
- Tan khan khao — the tray of rice ตานขันข้าว — A tray of food handed to a monk in a named dead person's name. 50–200 ฿ for a tray bought at the wat gate. Made at home it costs what the food costs.
- Offering a tung ตานตุง — A long narrow banner, raised at the wat, offered in a dead person's name. 20–150 ฿ paper or cloth. A metal one runs higher.
- Pouring the water กรวดน้ำ — Pour a thin stream of water while the chanting runs, and say who it is for. Nothing.
Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand · CC BY 2.0 · Commons
NaN Peacock · CC BY 4.0 ·
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