Jao Mae Quon Im, Chinese Goddess
of Mercy(Quon Im)

The majority of the people of Chiang Rai are Theravada Buddhist. There are also some Mahayana Buddhist Chinese. There are also Christians of many denominations (3 to 35%, depending on whom one asks), Muslims (2%), animists (mostly hill-tribe people) and ancestor worshippers.

The nation's most revered Buddha image, the Emerald Buddha, was found in a Jedi at Wat Phra Kaeo, Chiang Rai, after it was struck by lightening. Chaing Rai's many Buddhist temples are among its important tourist attractions.

Favorites include Wat Jet Yot, with a very large Buddha image right in the middle of town, Wat Phra Kaew with Lanna-style architecture, Wat Jedi Luang with the City Pillar (or Navel), Wat Phra Singh with one of the areas oldest Buddhas and an incredible set of demon doors, Wat Ngam Muang and Wat Klang Muang (all in the old town area).

Da Rul Ahman Mosque - Oldest
building in Chiang Rai City

Across from Sammakkhi Wittayakhom School on Banpaprakan is MunNiTi Chiang Rai, a Taoist and Mahayana Buddhist Chinese temple, and on Soi Krung Thong (between Sanambin Road and Jet Yot) is a small Teh Chiew Chinese ancestor worship temple with a cumbersomely long name. There's also a beautiful traditional-style Shan house in that soi. On the road to Pattaya Noi is a temple to the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, Jao Mae Kuan Im, with a large statue of her outside. Kwan Im, or Guanyin, is considered the female Buddha aspect. There's another temple to her, a Taiwanese one, in the Ban Kheck area.

Da Rul Ahman Mosque, on Thanon Issaraphap a bit behind Haw Nalikah Restaurant), was built 100 years ago, Chiang Rai's first mosque (frequented by Haw Chinese; it has no minaret). On Thanon Aladin, southeast of the bridge to Mae Sai, is Nu Rul Islam Pakistan Mosque (Kok Thong Soi 19). The minaret has loudspeakers. Men there wear white with skullcaps, and speak neither Thai nor English. Their neighborhood, north-east of the Mengrai statue and Ha-Yak, is Chiang Rai's most ethnically diverse; one finds also a Hakka &/or Taiwanese Chinese temple dedicated to vegetarianism and the goddess Quon Im, a small Baptist Church and the Catholic Mission, with Santi Vithaya School and the Church of Mary's Nativity. Mosque is pronounced "su!-rao" or "sukrao".

Chiang Rai First Church, its largest, was built in 1914 at PratuSiri corner. It's Presbyterian. There's a small Church of Christ (Presbyterian) in Den Ha (Den Damrong Sat) and another 3 km. further on 1211 at Nong Pung (Tawantham Church). Hope of Chiang Rai Church is just north of the turn from the highway to the bus station. On the south side of Pratu ChaingMai Road is a small Pentacostal Church.

Jao Mae Quon Im, Chinese Goddess of Mercy(Quon Im)		Jao Mae Quon Im, Chinese Goddess of Mercy(Quon Im)