Wat Phra Singh is the largest Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai which is a perfect representative of Lanna style architecture in Thailand, housing a Phra Buddha Sihing Statue and a large amount of north-Thai murals and exquisite wood carvings. It is also the venue for the traditional Songkran Festival every April.

Wat Phra Singh, full name Wat Phra Singh Woramahaviharn, situated at the western part of the old city of Chiang Mai, near Ping River, is the largest Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai and one of the most prestigious temples in Thailand.

Following the collapse of the Sukhothai dynasty, a powerful regime was established basing at northern Thailand – the Lanna kingdom, and ruled the vicinity for more than six centuries. Wat Phra Singh is hailed the most representative architecture of the distinct Lanna style. The temple is housing and named after a statue - Phra Buddha Sihing, which alledgedly was brought from Sri Lanka, but of heavy northern-Thai aesthetic features. The murals inside also represent the traditional northern-Thai arts.

Wat Phra Singh is one of the major venues for celebrations for the annual Songkran festival, one of the most eminent festivals of the country. Around the mid April every year, the Phra Buddha Sihing would be taken out from wihan Lai Kham and carried on a parade around the city of Chiang Mai, receiving venerations from the waves of pilgrims flooding in from different parts of Thailand. Another important ritual of the festival is that the crowd would sprinkle water onto the Buddha statue, in order to evict the bad luck.

Principally, there are four major structures inside the temple, and apart from the wihan Lai Kham, the others are the Ubosot, a local term that can be literally translated into Ordination Hall. Apparently, this is the venue for ordinations for the monks, thus it houses miniatures of the Phra Buddha Sihing and the Emerald Buddha. Ho Trai is another structure with strong Lanna architectural style now served as the library of the temple. Aside from the main wihans, there is also a 20m (66ft) pagoda in the middle of temple, which was erected in the 16th century and allegedly holding the Shakyamuni’s sarira (a Buddhist term referring to the sacred relics of Buddha). Upon the top of the pagoda, adorned a crystal lotus