Where the elephant restedWat Pha Lat วัดผาลาด

Where the elephant rested

Nobody. This is a stop in someone else's funeral procession.

This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote . Feel free to use any of my images, but please mention me as the author and may send me a message. (สามารถใช้ภาพได · CC BY 4.0 · Commons

Where: Halfway up the Doi Suthep road, or an hour up the monks' trail from the back of the university · 18.79923, 98.93400 from OpenStreetMap
Open: Daylight
Cost: Free
Who is dead: Nobody. This is a stop in someone else's funeral procession.
On: On a scooter, With a driver

The relic was loaded onto a white elephant and the elephant was let go to choose the ground. It stopped here, rested, went on, climbed to the summit, trumpeted three times and died. Doi Suthep is where it stopped for good; Pha Lat is where it stopped to breathe.

The wat is built into a stream in the trees and is dark in the afternoon. Moss on everything.

The trail up from the city is walkable in an hour and is the better arrival. The road is the one a driver takes.

What is said to be there

Halfway up, in the trees, on a stream. ผีขุนน้ำ is the spirit at a water source and นางไม้ is the one in a tree, and this wat is built into both. The elephant carrying the relic stopped here to rest and went on, which makes the place a pause in a funeral procession rather than the end of one — and a pause is where things wait.

The kind of dead this kind of place holds, in northern reckoning

Making merit here

Water into the stream. It runs down into the city.

Pouring the water กรวดน้ำ — Pour a thin stream of water while the chanting runs, and say who it is for. Nothing.
Sweeping กวาดลานวัด — Pick up a broom that is already leaning there and sweep. Nothing.

Wat Pha Lat — This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote . Feel free to use any of my images, but please mention me as the author and may send me a message. (สามารถใช้ภาพได · CC BY 4.0 · Commons

Yours would be better

Every picture here was taken by someone else for some other reason. Upload yours to Commons under a free licence and the next build of this page will use it, with your name on it.

Sources for this stop

What	Who published it	Note
ผี ไม่ได้มีแค่สยองขวัญ เมื่อ 'ผีล้านนา' คือการปกปักรักษา	Lanner	the Lanna split between ผีดี and ผีร้าย, and what เสื้อบ้าน เสื้อเมือง are
คำเรียกผีและความเชื่อเรื่องผีในภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ	Veridian E-Journal, Silpakorn University	the northern names for the dead, collected and classified