Wat Phra Tat Lampang Luang, situated at Lampang Luang Village, Ko Kha district, Lampang Province, is 18 kilometres southwest of Lampang or about 4 kilometres north of Ko Kha district. This Buddhist monastery is considered one of the oldest shrines in Lampang and is a must for all visitors.
   
     Legend: Around 457 A.D. there was a monastery, called Wat Mon Don Tao, headed by an august abbot. A lady named Suchade, a watermelon grower, was his patron. (According to Buddhism, crop growing is a respectful career since no killing is involved.) One day, en route to gather flowers for the veneration of the sacred pagoda containing the Lord relics and the abbot, she came upon an exceptionally beautiful melon, consequently, picked and presented it to her reverend abbot. Once a cleft had been made on the fruit, a globe of green jade was exposed to the sight. Both of them were overjoyed and, out of it, determined to carve a Buddha image, but, no matter how hard they tried, they failed. At length , an old man, miraculously appeared, helped realize their dream. ( The old man was believed to be a deity.) Anyhow, out of jealousy, some people invented a scandal that the abbot had an immoral affair with the lady. The city ruler at that time, indiscreetly, had the lady, whose death proved her innocence for her blood gushed up and vanished into the sky above as she had publicly declared, decapitated. The abbot fled with the image to Wat Phra Tat Lampang Luang (then called Wat Lam Pa Gub Pa)? where it has been hitherto enshrined.

 

 


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