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Thailand: Women plastering gold leaf on luk nimit (holy stone spheres), Wat Phrathat Doi Kham, Chiang Mai

Luk nimit are stone spheres used for burying at the four corners and the four cardinal points of a new ubosot, a ninth is buried below the main Buddha statue.

Wat Phrathat Doi Kham or ‘Temple of the Golden Mount’, is located in Tambon Mae Hia, about 10km south of Chiang Mai Old City, in the lee of Doi Suthep. Temple records claim that the temple dates back over 1,300 years ‘to 687 AD’, during the pre-Lan Na period when the region was inhabited by the indigenous animist Lawa.

Chiang Mai (meaning "new city"), sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. King Mengrai founded the city of Chiang Mai in 1296, and it succeeded Chiang Rai as capital of the Lanna kingdom.