Wat Sakawan (วัดสักกวัน)
a Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, situated outside the city's centre,
roughly 1.5 kilometer north of the Kok (กก) River. It has an
octagonal bell-shaped stupa surrounded by eight mondop (มณฑป)-like
edifices with niches that each contains a gilded Buddha statue
according to the days of the week, in line with the Phra prajam wan
(พระประจำวัน)-system. The current white chedi (เจดีย์), decorated
with gold ornaments, was built over the former more squarish gilded
pagoda, between 2015 and 2016. The ubosot has a staircase with a
pair of green coiling naga while on the inside it features the Phra
prathaan (พระประธาน) and some colourful murals with scenes from the
chadok (ชาดก). On the northern side of the large sala hall is a
staircase with balustrades in the form of colourful dragon-like
chang patjay naak (ช้างปัจจัยนาค), i.e. a mythical creature that is
described as a snake with the head of an elephant, and also referred
to as chang hua naak (ช้างหัวนาค), which translates ‘elephant-headed
naga’; on the western side of this large hall is smaller staircase
flanked by gilded makaras (मकर), i.e. mythological creatures known
in the northern dialect as mom (มอม) and is said to be the mount of
the god of the storm clouds, Thep Patchanna (เทพปัชชุนนะ). Also on
the temple premisses are statues of the Burmese spirit or nat
(နတ်)-like deity Bo Bo Gyi (ဘိုးဘိုးကြီး), who in Thailand is known
as Thep Than Jai (เทพทันใจ), and of Shin U Pagok (ရှင်ဥပဂုတ္တ,
ရှင်ဥပဂုတ်), another deity originally from Myanmar and in Thailand
known as Phra Upakhut (พระอุปคุต).
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