Landmark Chiang Mai, Thailand
Cats in Old City temples
Three hundred temples inside and around a square moat, and the monks feed the cats at all of them. The northern, slower, kinder version of the Bangkok temple cats, with a ruined chedi in the middle of it.
Where to find cats in Old City temples: The Old City of Chiang Mai, the square inside the moat, and its temples: Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh, and the small ones on every lane. When: Early morning after the alms round, when the monks feed. November to February for the weather; March and April are smoke season. Why here: The temple cats of the north: fed by monks, calm as the city, and in a temple every hundred metres.
The short version
- Where
- The Old City of Chiang Mai, the square inside the moat, and its temples: Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh, and the small ones on every lane
- When
- Early morning after the alms round, when the monks feed. November to February for the weather; March and April are smoke season
- How long
- A morning for the big temples. A day if you wander the lanes and do them all
- What it costs
- Most temples are free or ask a small fee. The donation box is how the cats eat
- Why here
- The temple cats of the north: fed by monks, calm as the city, and in a temple every hundred metres
What to bring
- Slip-on shoes and covered kneesOff at every hall, on again at every gate. Three hundred temples is a lot of laces.
- Twenty-baht notes for the boxesThe monks feed the animals from donations. A note in the box at each temple is the cats’ breakfast.
- Seven in the morningThe alms round ends, the monks eat, the cats eat after. By ten the courtyards are hot and the cats are under the halls.
- Nothing for the catsThe temples feed them. Yours goes in the box.
Why there are cats everywhere
Chiang Mai has a temple every hundred metres inside the moat, and every one of them has taken in an animal nobody else wanted.
The old capital of the Lanna kingdom is a square mile inside a moat and the remains of a brick wall, and it is full of temples: the great ones, Wat Chedi Luang with its half-ruined fifteenth-century chedi and Wat Phra Singh with its Lanna halls, and the small neighbourhood wats on every lane, three hundred or so in and around the old city. As in Bangkok, a family that cannot keep an animal leaves it at the temple, and the monks, who cannot refuse, feed it. Chiang Mai is smaller, slower and cooler than Bangkok, and the cats are the same.
They are in the courtyards, on the steps of the viharns, asleep on the tiled platforms around the chedis, and, in the evenings, under the tables of the monks’ quarters where the food is. The monks feed them from what is given, which means the donation box at each temple is, in a direct way, the cats’ dinner. The temple dogs, who are also here in numbers, get the same deal and are mostly gentle.
Do the big two, Chedi Luang and Phra Singh, and then walk the lanes between them and go into every gate you pass. The small wats have the most cats and the fewest visitors, and a monk sweeping a courtyard will nod you in. Take your shoes off, keep your voice down, and put something in the box.
The walk
From the east gate through the old city, Chedi Luang in the middle, Phra Singh at the west end, and every small wat between. A morning, in the shade where possible.
- From Chiang Mai airportTaxi or Grab to the old city15 minThe airport is almost in town. Ask for Tha Phae Gate.
- From Chiang Mai railway stationSongthaew or Grab to the old city15 minThe overnight train from Bangkok arrives in the morning, which is temple time.
- From Anywhere in the old cityWalk10 minThe old city is a mile square. Everything on this page is inside it.
Tha Phae Gate
The rebuilt east gate in the old brick wall, with the moat outside and the pigeons inside. Walk west along Ratchadamnoen Road, the old city’s spine, and turn into every temple gate on it.
Inside the gate. The first of many.VasenkaPhotography, CC BY 2.0 Wat Chedi Luang
The great ruined chedi in the middle of the old city, half its original height since an earthquake in the fifteen-hundreds, with the city pillar shrine beside it. Cats on the platforms around the base and on the steps of the viharn. A small fee at the gate.
Fast asleep. The chedi has been half-fallen for five centuries and is in no hurry either.David McKelvey, CC BY 2.0 Wat Phra Singh
At the west end of Ratchadamnoen, the most important temple in the city, with the Lion Buddha and the finest Lanna halls. Cats in the courtyard behind the main viharn, near the monks’ quarters.
Chiang Mai cat, at rest, which is the local speed.David McKelvey, CC BY 2.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Temple cats: abandoned pets and their descendants, tabby and white and the local cream-with-points, fed by monks, calm because nothing in a temple chases them, and slightly better off than their Bangkok cousins because the city is smaller and the boxes fuller.
Chedi cats
On the platforms round the big chedis.
The visible ones. Photographed daily; unbothered.
Lane wat cats
In the courtyards of the small neighbourhood temples.
More cats, fewer people. Go in.
Kitchen cats
Near the monks’ quarters in the evening.
Where the food is. Not a visitor area.
Everybody says The monks keep cats as pets.
Actually The monks keep what is left at the gate, because they cannot refuse it. It is compassion running on the donation box, and the box is where you come in.
How not to be the annoying one
- Temple rules: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off in the halls, no pointing feet at a Buddha, and no stepping over a cat lying in front of one.
- Do not feed. Put money in the box; the monks feed.
- The dogs are temple animals too. Calm, mostly. Do not run.
- Women do not touch monks. If a monk is feeding the cats, watch from a distance.
- Smoke season, March and April, is bad for cats and worse for you. Come in the cool months.
