Wat Sri Suphan

Wat Sri Suphan is a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai’s Wualai district, notable for its richly decorated silver-covered ordination hall.

The complex’s most striking feature is the silver-clad ordination hall, whose exterior and many fittings are finished in detailed silverwork. Small workshops and retail silver shops cluster along the adjacent Wualai Road, reflecting a long local tradition of silversmithing.

The site functions as an active monastery within the Lanna Buddhist tradition and has long associations with Chiang Mai’s silversmith community. The silver decoration on the ubosot is a relatively recent focus compared with the temple’s longer monastic role.

The temple sits on Wualai Road in Chiang Mai’s old city, just south of the moat, within easy walking or short-taxi distance from central Chiang Mai.

• Silver ubosot: The ordination hall is covered in hammered silver sheets and intricate silver reliefs, which make it the temple’s primary attraction.

What to See#

• Ordination hall (ubosot): The temple’s main ordination hall, or ubosot, is clad in hammered silver sheets and detailed silver reliefs that cover walls, doors, and fixtures; it is the complex’s principal building and focal point for visitors.
• Silversmith quarter: A concentration of family-run silversmith workshops and retail silver shops runs along Wualai Road immediately outside the temple complex; many craftsmen produce decorative and liturgical silverwork.

Wat Sri Suphan, in the traditional silversmiths’ district of Wualai just south of the old city, is known locally as the “Silversmiths’ Temple”. Its two stand-out features are an ubosot (ordination hall) clad entirely in silver and a silver statue of Ganesha. The original temple was founded in 1502 by Phraya Pilok Pannadatiraj, who reigned at the end of the Lanna Kingdom’s golden age and was also responsible for building Wat Phra Singh.

Although only the original teak pillars and roof beams survive in the viharn, the murals crowding its interior walls are an intriguing mix of legendary elements from Thai Theravada Buddhism, the Japanese Zen tradition and Chinese Taoism, all executed in a modernist style. The district’s silver-working tradition is kept alive here, with master craftsmen holding workshops for young people who wish to learn the trade, and you will almost certainly see silversmiths at work in the compound. Nearby Wualai Road is lined with shops selling beaten silverware, and every Saturday evening its walking-street market offers more of the same alongside other handicrafts.

Wat Sri Suphan (the Silver Temple) sits on Wualai Road in Chiang Mai’s Old City. From Chiang Mai International Airport it’s about 3-4 km (a taxi or Grab is typically 10-15 minutes). From Tha Phae Gate it’s a 10-15 minute walk (roughly 800-1,200 m); the temple is also served by Chiang Mai’s red songthaew shared taxis that run along Wualai Road.

• Go early in the morning when the silver workshops along Wua Lai Road are active - you can watch artisans working and the temple grounds are far less crowded than later in the day.
• Enter from Wua Lai Road and ask at the gate about visiting hours for the ubosot; the main ordination hall is richly silver-decorated and visitors are expected to follow temple dress-and-behaviour norms (cover shoulders and knees, remove shoes).
• Combine a visit with the nearby Wua Lai artisan neighborhood to see traditional silversmithing and small galleries that many tourists skip, rather than only photographing the exterior.