The low hill above the Kok river where the Chiang Rai chronicles begin, carrying a gold-leafed Lanna chedi, and, a few steps away, the city navel pillar raised in B.E. 2530 with a hundred and eight posts around it.
วัดพระธาตุดอยจอมทอง · Wat Phra That Doi Chom Thong
By the BAANLYY Editorial Team · Last checked 22 September 2026
| Official name | วัดพระธาตุดอยจอมทอง — Wat Phra That Doi Chom Thong |
|---|---|
| Where | Rop Wiang, Mueang Chiang Rai, Chiang Rai |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Not established. |
| Coordinates | 19.915733, 99.822561 The cultural-environment register of the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning, site 110, which gives this point for วัดพระธาตุดอยจอมทอง and states ตำบลรอบเวียง อำเภอเมืองเชียงราย in the same record. The Ministry of Culture's coordinate for the navel post beside the chedi falls about 200 m away, consistent with the two standing on the same hill. |
Thai temple histories mix two different kinds of statement, and this guide keeps them apart. What a register, a gazette entry, an inscription or a dated royal act shows is one thing. What the chronicles and the temple itself hold is another, and it is worth telling as what it is.
Neither year rests on a document that anyone in this research opened. No Royal Gazette announcement and no Fine Arts Department register entry could be read for this monument, so the early history here is the chronicle as a state environmental register reproduces it, and the record half of this entry is empty on purpose rather than by oversight.
Doi Chom Thong is a small hill on the west side of the old town, in Tambon Rop Wiang, with the Kok river below it. Almost every account of how Chiang Rai came to be begins here, and the state cultural-environment register that carries the temple's entry begins here too: it describes the monastery as standing on the hill before Phaya Mangrai found the place and ordered a city laid out in B.E. 1805. That is a claim of priority over the city itself, and the register makes it in the language of supposition rather than of record.
What the register repeats after that is chronicle. The stupa, it says, was raised in the reign of Phaya Ruean Kaeo, the ruler of an older town it identifies with today's Wiang Chai district, in B.E. 1483, to hold a relic of the Buddha brought from Lanka by a Theravada elder and presented to Phaya Phangkharat of Yonok. Five centuries before Mangrai, in other words, and a relic that traveled the length of the Buddhist world to get here. None of it is anchored to a document. It is the story the north tells about its own beginnings, and it is worth reading as that.
The fabric the register does describe is Lanna and later. The principal chedi has a lotus base of stacked mouldings, a bell chamber above it, a throne and spire, and a parasol at the top, the whole of it finished in gold leaf — which the register notes is not only ornament in the north but a practical way of keeping algae off a surface that stands in monsoon damp half the year. The vihara mixes Lanna with Rattanakosin: a sky-opening at the gable, the run of the roof edges, a hang hong at the end of the barge board, worked pediments and column capitals, and inside, a principal image in the Maravijaya attitude with painting on the walls around it.
The other thing on the hill is not the temple's, and it is worth keeping the two apart. Beside the chedi stands the เสาสะดือเมือง, the navel post of Chiang Rai, and the Ministry of Culture's cultural database gives its history precisely: it was raised in B.E. 2530 under the provincial governor Aram Iam-arun, working with several bodies including Chiang Mai University's social research institute, to mark the sixtieth birthday of Rama IX and the seven hundred and twenty-fifth year of the city. The central post measures five royal handspans and its height was taken from the reigning king's own stature; a hundred and eight smaller posts stand around it; the design follows the center post of a Tai Lue house, rendered in a Khmer manner, with six concentric terraces and water channels for the cosmological rivers and three inner levels for form, formlessness and nirvana. A small cultural repository was added nearby in B.E. 2544.
The principal chedi: a lotus-molded base, a bell chamber, throne and spire and a parasol at the top, the whole surface under gold leaf — which the state register describes as both ornament and a way of keeping algae off in a northern climate.
The vihara, Lanna crossed with Rattanakosin — the gable sky-opening, the roof-edge runs, the hang hong at the barge board, worked pediments and capitals, a Maravijaya image inside and painting around the walls.
The เสาสะดือเมือง a few steps away: a central post of five royal handspans with a hundred and eight smaller posts ringed around it, six concentric terraces with water channels for the cosmological rivers and three inner levels for form, formlessness and nirvana.
The view the chronicles are about — the Kok river below the hill, and the ground on which, in the traditional account, Mangrai decided to put a city.
This is a working place of worship for millions of people rather than an attraction, and it is treated as one at the gate. Where a figure below is blank, no source we are prepared to cite states it.
| Hours | Not established from an official source. |
|---|---|
| Admission | Not established from an official source. |
| Dress | Not established from an official source. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Tambon Rop Wiang, Mueang Chiang Rai, on the hill above the Kok river on the west side of the old town. Wat Doi Ngam Mueang stands about half a kilometer away on the next rise, close enough that the two and the navel post are one walk. |
Every temple reference repeats claims nobody has checked. These are the ones we went looking for and could not stand up, listed so you know exactly where this page stops.
The state cultural-environment register says it is believed to be, and puts the raising of the stupa five centuries before Mangrai laid out the city in B.E. 1805. That belief is chronicle rather than record: the register cites no document, and no inscription, excavation or gazette entry reachable in this research dates anything on the hill. The honest answer is that the tradition claims priority and nothing has been produced that settles it.
It is the navel post of Chiang Rai, and it is modern. The Ministry of Culture's cultural database records that it was raised in B.E. 2530 under the provincial governor Aram Iam-arun to mark the sixtieth birthday of Rama IX and the city's seven hundred and twenty-fifth year, with a hundred and eight smaller posts around a central one of five royal handspans whose height was taken from the king's own. It is a separate monument from the temple, on the same hill.
They are two different things that both get called the navel of the town. Wat Klang Wiang, in the middle of the old town, holds the สะดือเวียง and the post that stands in its mondop; Doi Chom Thong carries the B.E. 2530 เสาสะดือเมือง with its hundred and eight posts, on the hill. The state records describe them separately and this guide keeps them apart.
No state source read for this page publishes opening hours or an admission charge, so this guide states neither rather than copying a time from a travel site. In practice it is an open hilltop monastery reached by road and by stair.
Before you go, read the guide to Buddhism and temple etiquette in Thailand — dress, footwear, where photography is not welcome and how to behave around monks. The rest of Chiang Rai’s temples are covered here too.
Every temple here sits in a place worth reading about on its own terms. The nationwide temple guide covers the other provinces to the same documentary standard as this page, and says on each one what the record establishes and what it does not.
If you are thinking about more than a visit: work out which Thai visa route fits your situation, and see what is available to rent and buy in residences across Thailand.
Last checked 22 September 2026
Every fact on this page is drawn from the sources above. Where they disagree, this page says so rather than choosing silently. Registrations, fees, hours and access change; confirm anything you are relying on with the authority concerned. BAANLYY LLC is a Nevada company and a listing portal, does not represent any temple, and offers no legal or religious advice.