Three hours north of Chiang Mai a Thai artist has spent decades building a temple out of white plaster and mirrored glass, complete with a bridge over a pit of reaching hands and a mural that puts space rockets and superheroes into a Buddhist cosmology. It is one of the strangest and most photographed places in Thailand, it is still being built, and it is genuinely worth seeing. What it is not is a comfortable day trip, and knowing that before you book is most of what this page is for.
The White Temple
What it is. A contemporary art project in the form of a temple, privately funded and begun in the late 1990s, and still unfinished by design.
The approach is the point. You cross a bridge over a field of hands reaching up from below, past figures representing desire and suffering, into a hall whose murals mix traditional Buddhist imagery with modern and pop-culture references.
All white with mirrored glass, which in strong sun is dazzling and in photographs is unmistakable.
It is a working religious site as well as an artwork, and temple dress and behaviour rules apply.
Photography is not permitted inside the main hall, which is enforced.
An hour covers the complex comfortably, plus the gallery.
The Blue Temple
On the other side of town, half an hour away, a much newer temple hall painted in deep blue and gold with an enormous white seated Buddha inside.
It is a complete contrast to the white temple and takes twenty minutes.
Free or a small donation, and considerably quieter.
The two together make the case for the trip better than either alone.
The Black House
Not a temple, despite frequently being called one: a collection of dark wooden buildings assembled by another Thai artist, filled with animal bones, hides and furniture made from them.
It is deliberately unsettling and it is the third of the town’s trio of unusual buildings.
Worth an hour if that appeals, and easy to skip if it does not.
Getting there
By bus from Chiang Mai, frequent, cheap and around three to four hours on a good highway.
By air, a short domestic flight, which makes sense if you are continuing elsewhere afterwards.
By organised tour, which handles the driving and the sequencing and returns you the same evening.
By rented car or scooter, which is a long ride and only sensible if you are touring the north properly.
Practical notes
Temple dress applies at both temples: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off inside.
Small entrance fees apply for foreign visitors at the white temple, and cash is the safe assumption.
It is hot and shadeless at the white temple, where the white surfaces reflect the sun.
Go early for the light and to be ahead of the tour buses, which arrive through the middle of the day.
The town itself has a good night bazaar and is worth an evening.
Whether to go at all
Be honest about the trade-off. If you have four days in the north, this costs you one of them and it is a genuinely unusual sight. If you have two, an elephant sanctuary or the mountain temple above Chiang Mai gives you a comparable day with a fraction of the travel. Our guide to visiting an ethical elephant sanctuary covers the choice that competes most directly with this one, and our Chiang Mai guide covers what is on the doorstep.
For the wider groundwork of a first Thai trip, from the transport to the eating to the etiquette, our first-time guide to Thailand covers what this article assumes.
The short version
The white temple is remarkable and it is three hours each way from Chiang Mai. Stay a night in Chiang Rai rather than doing it as a day trip, and see the blue temple and the black house on the same visit so the drive carries three sights instead of one. Go early for the light and ahead of the buses, cover shoulders and knees, carry cash for the entrance, and accept that photography inside the main hall is not permitted. And if the north is only getting two days of your trip, spend them closer to Chiang Mai instead.
